To the Stars Above
by Hakuhunter
Summary: Team Rocket finally captured a Pokemon. While traveling around Johto; Jessie, James, and Meowth were able to snag a Vulpix, and now they want to bring it to the boss. Only problem? A Pokemon hunter also wants that Vulpix as well as a talking meowth, and he'll do anything to get them. It doesn't help matters that one of the Hunter's Pokemon that he uses is Meowth's old friend.
1. Blasting Off Again

**Hey guys and welcome to my new story. I know that I have another story that I'm working on, but I will be updating both of these as much as I can. This one is going to be about Team Rocket from the anime. I know that they are minor characters in my other story, but I love the guys so much I wanted to make a story just about them. With out any further adue, I bring you my second story. hope you like it.**

* * *

The police sirens were deafening; they would just blare on and on. Normally, police sirens were a common sound to hear from time to time. There would always be some robber trying to make a buck or crooks swindling their customers for things that are just cheap rip-offs. That was all just as common as the seasons. As a matter of fact, if you were a normal citizen of the city, you would be able to just tune out the sirens and continue on what you were doing because you would have gotten used to them.

Not this time.

This time, the police sirens were blaring so loud that you could have mistaken them for tornado sirens. Why was this? Well, everyone in town knew. There was only one reason that there would be so many police officers.

Pokémon thieves.

Most of the time when people think of Pokémon thieves, they think of Team Rocket. And this time, they would be right. But these aren't the Team Rocket grunts that people normally think about.

A man in his mid-twenties was running frantically down the street. In his hands was an iron cage. A blue pokémon that had yellow lights at the end of its antennas was inside the small prison.

"_Chinchow," _it cried out. The man ignored the pokémon's plea and kept running. He quickly ducked into a small alleyway to catch his breath. He leaned up against one of the walls as he ran a hand through his lavender hair.

_I need to get into better shape. _The man thought. He strained his ears and heard police sirens in the distance. Lots of them. "Looks like I stirred up the hive," the man said out loud."Good."

The man looked down at his white Team Rocket suit and saw that there was some mud on it. He frowned because he had just gotten it dry cleaned for this mission. But then again, if they were successful, he would have all the money he could ever want, and dry cleaning wouldn't be a problem.

After the man had recovered, he started running down the street once more. It didn't take long for the police to catch up to him, seeing how he was on foot and they were on their motorcycles. The man tried to lose them by running around corners and ducking into random buildings, but it didn't take long for him to hit a wall on one of the streets. A dead end.

The man turned around to see that the policemen were blocking the way out of the alley.

"Hang over that pokémon or else," one of them called out. The man just let out a scowl. He had hoped that he would have been able to keep this up for a little longer, but he guessed that he had given her enough time. Just in case, he decided to do one more thing.

"Wheezing, Smokescreen!" the man said as he took a pokéball off of his belt with the hand that wasn't carrying the cage and then threw it into the air. A bright flash of light came out of the pokéball, and so did a pokémon. It was large, round, and purple with holes all over its body; it had another smaller head connected to it. It was levitating a few meters above the ground.

"_Wheezing," _the pokémon called out before opening its mouth and releasing a dense black smoke that covered the entire police force. The smoke disoriented the police and made it so that they couldn't see anything, and that allowed the man and his wheezing to push through them.

Once out of the smoke himself, the man ran as fast as he could away from the law enforcers, knowing that he wouldn't get very far when they got on their motorcycles. It was about time to stop this distraction, but he couldn't have them following him. He had to somehow get rid of the reason they were following him. The man looked around and saw the famous river that ran through the city.

_That will work_ he thought. The man took the cage and threw it as hard as he could into the river, careful, however, not to hurt the pokémon inside of it. The man hoped that this would divert the police's attention enough to be able to escape. He then continued to run through the city.

The two ran around a corner as the man took out a slip of paper out of his pocket and read a crudely drawn map.

"Let's see," he said to himself. "Take a right up ahead and we should get to the rendezvous point where Jessie should be." The man put the piece of paper back in his pocket and continued running with his pokémon not far behind. He then took a right that led to a pathway which connected to a small park area. The man looked around and didn't find anyone else there.

"Jessie should be here by now," the man said to no one in particular. "Where is she?" He looked down one of the paths that lead to the park. To his relief, he saw a woman about the same age as he, who was also wearing the same uniform, running down the path with a large sack that was slung on her back. A wobbuffet was not far behind her.

"James, what did you do? Your distraction was a huge success," she said as she stopped beside the man. "No police were ever near the pokécenter, allowing me to take my time in stealing all of their pokémon."

"Take your time?!" The man cried out as he returned his wheezing. "Did you forget that we are in the middle of a heist?"

"Oh, chill out. I got them all, didn't I? So stop complaining," Jessie said as she took a walky talky out of holder that was attached to her belt.

"_Wobbuffet," _the blue pokémon that was next to Jessie called out.

"Meowth, do you copy?" Jessie said in the walky talky, completely ignoring her pokémon.

"5 by 5," a voice on the other end said.

"We are ready to be picked up at the rendezvous point."

"Alright, I'm bringing the balloon in. ETA, four minutes."

"Copy that," Jessie replied and put the walky talky back on its holster. "So we just have to wait here for a little bit. No one followed you, did they?"

"I don't believe so." James said.

"Stop right there!" the two of them heard a voice. They both looked back towards the way that James had come in. There was a woman in the standard police outfit with a growlithe by her side. Lots of other police officers were behind her.

"Officer Jenny, great," Jessie said sarcastically. Officer Jenny was the head of the police department, and that meant that they had attracted a lot of attention.

"In the name of the Johto police force, you two are under arrest for the theft of pokémon. We will now ask you to come with us peacefully and give us back the pokémon that you stole."

"In your dreams!" Jessie shouted and then took a pokéball from her belt with her free hand. "Let's go Arbok," she said as she threw it. Out came a tall, purple, cobra like creature.

"Ssssabok!" It hissed once out.

"You too, Victreebel," James said as he threw a pokéball of his own. Out came a venus fly-trap looking pokémon with long vines extending out of it.

"Aehhh!" It cried out in a high pitched voice. Both of the pokémon got into their battle stances. Suddenly, the victreebel turned around and jumped onto James, practically swallowing him whole.

"OW! Yes, I love you too Victreebel, but this isn't the time; get them!" James' muffled voice came from inside the pokémon. Victreebel then jumped off of its master and got back into its battle stance.

"Arbok, Poison Sting!" Jessie ordered her pokémon. Arbok shot out several long needles from its mouth that were tipped with venom.

"Growlithe, use flame wheel!" Officer Jenny gave a counterattack. The dog shot out a circle of fire from its mouth. The fire burned right through the needles and hit Arbok square in the chest.

"Ssssabok!" It yelled out after getting hit.

"Victreebel, use Razor Leaf!" James commanded his grass type. Victreebel took some leaves and shot them with its vines. They went at such an incredible speed, the growlithe didn't have time to react and got hit by the full power of the attack.

"_Growlithe_!" the growlithe cried out once he got hit, but it was back on its feet just as fast. Knowing that Jenny was outnumbered, on of the other police officers stepped up to the plate.

"Let's go spinarak." he called out as another yet another pokémon entered the battle. Out of the pokéball came a small, spider-like pokémon.

"_Spinarak_."

"Alright Arbok, another poison sting, let's go!"

Jessie's pokémon shook off the flame wheel it had just taken and sent out another volley of needles.

"Dodge that!" both Officer Jenny and the other policeman said in unision. As if in sync, the two pokémon dodged just in time to not get hit by the poison sting.

"Spinarak, use string shot on that arbok."

The spinarak shot out a line of string the surrounded and entangled Arbok. The snake couldn't move since the web had it trapped.

"Now, throw it!" the police officer ordered. Despite its tiny size, the spinarak was easily able to pick up Arbok with the string still attached to its mouth and throw it across the park area. Arbok ending up smashing into one of the park bench.

"Arbok?" Jessie said in concern, wondering if Arbok could battle anymore.

"Growlithe, use flamethrower!" Jenny kept up their attack. Growlithe shot out a stream of fire from its mouth.

"Use Razor Leaf again," James said out of panic. Victreebel obeyed, but the flamethrower burned the leaves to a crisp before hitting the grass type. Victreebel got pushed backwards from the hit and rammed into James, knocking him over. It was obvious that neither Arbok nor Victreebel could battle anymore, so Jessie and James returned their pokémon to their pokéballs respectively.

"Now hand over those pokémon," Jenny told them again, thinking that she had won.

"Not now, not never." Jessie said. She then jumped up onto a rope with a little platform that had been lowered down from somewhere, her wobbuffet doing the same. James also jumped onto the platform. Jenny looked up to see that the rope was connected to a meowth shaped hot-air balloon. The balloon started to fly away with Jessie and James being pulled up to it.

"You get back here," Jenny called out.

"You better prepare for trouble, because today's the day we succeed," Jessie called back once she and her wobbuffet had been pulled up to the balloon.

"You better make it double, because today's a victorious day indeed." James also said.

Jessie put the bag full of pokéballs down and crossed her arms as she started to quote their motto. "To protect the world from devastation!"

James also took the same pose as he recited his part. "To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love." Jessie continued.

"To extend our reach to the stars above!" James finished.

"Jessie!" the crimson haired woman called out.

"James!" the man said with a flick of his hair.

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

A cat-like pokémon jumped up onto the edge of the nest of the balloon.

"Meowth, that's right!" the pokémon said his only line proudly.

"You're not going to get away with this," Jenny shouted as the balloon drifted farther away from them.

"Sorry to spoil it for you, sister," Jessie said in a sassy tone of voice, "but we're getting away with it right now."

"I didn't know you two were sisters," James said with surprise.

"It's just an expression, James."

"Oh, right."

"Spinarak, stop them with your string shot," the other police officer shouted. The spider then shot out another string from it's mouth which hit the side of the carrier.

"Huh?" Jessie exclaimed when she realized that they weren't moving anymore. "Meowth, why aren't we moving?"

"Someth'n is holdi'n us back!" Meowth replied.

"Then go faster, Meowth!" James exclaimed.

"I can't! We don't have rockets on this d'ing you know."

"Noctowl, get that bag back," Jenny yelled out as she sent out another pokémon. Once it was out of its ball, the flying type went up to the balloon and grabbed the bag that Jessie had put down.

"No you don't," Jessie said as she grabbed the bag and tugged on it to stop the noctowl from getting it. However, the pokémon overpowered her and started to fly away with the bag, while Jessie was still holding on to it.

"Hey! Put me down this instant!" she yelled.

Suddenly, the noctowl dropped the bag along with Jessie. She started to fall down to the ground along with the bag.

"No wait, I didn't mean it!" Jessie called out when she realized the gravity of the situation. Thankfully, the noctowl hadn't moved too far away from the balloon and Jessie's trajectory would make her fall right by the balloon. James knew that he could only catch one of the two things falling. He also knew which one he needed to catch.

"I got you Jessie!" he shouted and just barely caught Jessie by her stomach. He was almost pulled out of the hot-air balloon by the force of Jessie falling, but was braced by Meowth at the last second. The bag, on the other hand, fell down to the ground and split open, releasing, all the pokéballs that was inside of it.

"Noctowl, blow them away with your Gust!" Jenny gave one more order to finish the strife. The Noctowl flapped his wings and created a very strong wind. James and Meowth had only just gotten Jessie back into the balloon before the wind hit them. The force of the Gust was so great that it blew the balloon far away.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" All three of the thieves said in unison as they were launched away from the city.

"_Wobbuffet!" _

"That was good work guys," Jenney said to her two pokémon. She went over to where the pokéballs were. "Now let's get these back to their owners."

* * *

The fall wasn't actually that bad. They had had many more crash landings that had ended up worse than this one. Jessie, James, and Meowth had just climbed out of their balloon and fell down onto the ground out of exhaustion.

"Argh! We were so close that time!" Jessie yelled out of anger.

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"I don't need your input!" Jessie raged as she took out a pokéball and returned her wobbuffet

"Well, at least our balloon didn't pop." James said sullenly, trying to look on the bright side.

"Our plan was perfect! What did we do wrong?" Jessie kept ranting. She let out a sigh and laid down on the ground. "What did we do wrong," she said again, this time a lot quieter.

"Well, if it's any consolation, look what's coming, down the road," Meowth pointed to someone who was walking down a dirt road. The other two joined their feline friend in looking at the person. It was a small girl, no older than ten. In her arms was a red, fox-like pokémon.

"Yeah, and why would we want that?" Jessie asked.

"Well, think of what the boss would say if we brought him a vulpix." Meowth tried to cheer up his teammates.

"How do we know he won't just reject it like when we brought him that twerp's togepi?" James asked.

"Because vulpixes are a lot better than togepis. They're much stronger fighters. Their beautiful, cute, and when they evolve into ninetails, they get psychic abilities.

"Hmm, that does sound like something the boss would want." James agreed.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's steal it!" Jessie exclaimed.

"Yeah!" her two other partners said simultaneously.

"I hope you're ready for your appearance, Scarlett," the little girl said to her vulpix that was in her arms

"_Vulpix,_"

"I think it's really neat that they have a day where you can bring your own pokémon to school. I can't wait until I can show you to all of my friends."

"_Vulpix Vul," _the vulpix said happily.

"Sadly, I'll also have to say goodbye to most of them, since we're leaving for our new home tomorrow."

Suddenly, a net attached to a pole appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the fox.

"Scarlett!" the girl yelled. She watched helplessly as her vulpix was snatched up.

"_Vulpix_!" Scarlett yelled back at its trainer. The girl looked at who had taken her and saw a man, a woman, and a meowth. The man was holding the net with Scarlett in it.

"What are you guys doing with my Scarlett?" The little girl asked.

"You better prepare for trouble, we're stealing it of course." Jessie started

"You better make it double, we're taking it by force." James rhymed.

"Hey!" Meowth yelled. "We've already done the motto once this chapter!"

"Oh yeah…" Jessie remembered. "Well then we'll just be going!"

"See ya!" James said.

The three of them quickly ran back to their hot-air balloon and Meowth started up the engine.

"No! Please don't take my vulpix!" the girl yelled out as tears streamed down her face.

"Sorry, but this vulpix is ours now." Jessie said back with a sneer. She looked back just in time to see the engine to their balloon sparking.

"Um, hey Meowth, why is our engine doing that?"

"I don't know," he said frantically. "It must have been damaged by da' fall."

"Wait, does that mean…" Jessie wasn't able to say anything else before the engine exploded, causing the trio to once again, go flying the sky with their hot-air balloon.

"We're blasting off again!" all of them said in unision.

The little girl just fell on her knees as she watched them fly off into the distance.

"Scarlett…" she whispered, and then broke down into tears.


	2. Catch of The Day

The fall was actually pretty bad. They had had some rough falls in their career, but this one was one of their worst. Not only did they land hard, but their balloon had popped as well, so James had nothing optimistic to say this time. The three just sat there on the cold ground, recovering from their wounds, metaphorically and physically. Jessie didn't see the net that had caught the vulpix in James' hands, so she suspected the worst.

"James, tell me you didn't drop the net again?" Jessie said in an exasperated voice.

"Wish I could," James replied in an equally tired voice.

"Is it really that hard to hold onto a simple net?" Jessie asked, her voice rising in volume. A flash of light came out from her belt and out popped her wobbuffet.

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"Well, how about you try and hold onto a net while you're flying at 80 miles per hour!" James retorted back, ignoring the blue pokémon.

"You know what?" Jessie said while standing up. "If you had distracted the police for longer, we could have gotten away with that bag of pokéballs!"

"What!" James yelled out in disgust as he too stood. "Well, I'm not the person who took their time stealing all the pokémon!"

"But you were the person who lead all the police to our evac point!"

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"But you were the person who let the bag get taken by a noctowl!"

"You know what?" Jessie continued. "You're right. It was all Meowth's fault."

"Hey! Why are you bringing me into this?"

"You didn't get the balloon there in time."

"I was going as fast as I could!" Meowth yelled in his defence.

Jessie was now fed up with her teammates' excuses. "WHY CAN'T YOU DO ANYTH-"

"_Vulpix!" _

Every looked over to where the sound came from, which happened to from be inside the balloon.  
"Did you just hear that?" Jessie asked in a tone of voice that was a total contrast to what it was just a few seconds prior.

"I think I did," James responded, not to sure of what he heard either. The four went over to the balloon and looked inside the nest. Inside was the vulpix from earlier trapped by the net.

"James, I thought that you said you dropped the net." Jessie said, still recovering from what she was seeing.

"I did. I must have dropped it inside the balloon." James said scratching his head. Jessie clasped her hands together and looked much happier than before.

"This is great. Now we can get this vulpix to the boss after all!"

"Hate to break it to ya," Meowth said, "but we ain't going anywhere with our balloon like 'dis."

"Do we have any extra string to sow the balloon up?" James asked.

"Nope, I used the last of it the last time the twerps blew it up." Meowth said while crossing his arms. "Someone will need to go into town to get some more."

"Hmm, that's right." Jessie said while putting her hand up to her chin. "Alright, I nominate James to go into town and get the string."

"Wh-what, why me?"

"Because I need to stay here and watch the vulpix and Meowth needs to fix the engine." Jessie said. Meowth took this as his hint and went over to the engine and start to tamper with it.

"But why can't I say here and watch the vulpix?" James asked in udder desperation.

"Because it's obvious that I need to. A pokémon as cute as this one needs a person who has a similar beauty."

"Bu-but…" James stammered, but then stopped when he realized it was futile. He let out a large sigh.

"Fine, just give me the money." James said with his head to the ground.

"If you could, also go and buy some food since we are almost out." Jessie said while handing James the Team Rocket wallet. "This is the last of the money that we have, so don't go and buy anything stupid with it."

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"Alright…" James said, knowing that she still hadn't forgiven him for all the times he had been swindled by that one salesman. He grabbed the wallet and then started to head off in the direction of the town. "Wait a second," James stopped when he remembered something important. "Aren't we wanted in that city?"

"Yes, so you'll just have to be stealthy." Jessie said while going over to the vulpix, taking it off of the pole, and tying a knot in the net.

"_Vulpix," _it cried out. Jessie ignored it.

"I really don't think that's an option," James replied back, very tired of all the things that are happening.

"I think there's a small town to the west of 'ere" Meowth said as he took a screw out with his wrench. "You can try that one out."

"Guess I will," James said and then headed out in the direction of the small town.

Once he was out of earshot, James let out a growl.

"I always have to do the hard work," the purple-haired man grumbled as he continued walking. "They never treat me with the respect I deserve. Why I haven't left them, I don't know." Then, James thought of something. "You know, that's a good point! Why haven't I left them? Why don't I leave them? It's not like I need them. Yeah, I'll run away from them. I'll go and stay at my…" James hesitated. He thought about it. "...go stay at my…" James repeated to himself. "My...what? I don't have anywhere to go."

That was the truth. James couldn't go anywhere. His parents would never accept him, and even if they did, they would just want him to marry Jessibelle. He could never confront his Grandparents being a member of Team Rocket. They were so sweet to him when he was younger, it would just seem wrong to approach them as a pokémon thief. If he did leave, not only would James not have a place to go, but he wouldn't really have anything to do either. Sure, he had a few hobbies before he joined Team Rocket, like pokéringing and pokémon orienteering, but those were just things he did in his free time. In Team Rocket, he had a real job. And not only that, it was a job he liked doing. They say that if you find a job you love, then you'll never work a day in your life.

James could testify that he had never worked while in Team Rocket.

James looked back towards the area where he came from and sighed. Truth be told, Jessie and Meowth were his only friends. Even though they did get into fights and argue a lot, the three of them were really close, though Jessie would never admit it. A smile crept onto James' face. It was true that he had to do a lot of the work, but if that meant doing the work for his friends, then he should take pride in that. He now felt a bit ashamed that he had ever thought of leaving them, but that feeling left him when the thought of leaving did. Rebooted, refueled, and reenergized, James continued onwards with a spring in his step towards the town in order to buy the string and food.

* * *

" 'Dere. All finished." Meowth announced triumphantly as he put down his wrench. He was quite proud of his handiwork.

"The engine's ready?" Jessie asked from where she was sitting next to the vulpix. She had since returned wobbuffet since it was getting annoying.

"Yeah, I just had to replace a few parts," he said, jumping off of the balloon.

"All right, now all we have to do is wait until James comes back and then we can get going." Jessie said as she layed down on the grass, looking up to the clouds.

"Are you sure 'dat little girl ain't going to come looking for us?" Meowth questioned, remembering how many times the twerps had caught them just waiting around.

"Of course not," Jessie said with confidence in her voice. "And even if she does, it's not like she'll be able to do anything."

"I guess you're right." Meowth said with assurance. He went over to Jessie and layed down next to her. The two were silent for a bit before Jessie broke the silence.

"You know," she said while staring up at the clouds. "It feels a bit weird actually having a pokémon that we can give to the boss."  
"What do ya mean?" Meowth asked while looking over at her. This was a side of Jessie that didn't usually show.

"Well, it just feel weird that, after all this time of failing, we are actually going to get a pokémon to the boss that he'll accept. It just feels a bit surreal."

"I know what you mean," Meowth said as he looked back up at the sky."But let's not count out eggs till 'dey hatch."

"I guess you're right."

Just then, they two of them heard rustling coming from some bushes near them.

"Hear 'dat?" Meowth asked as he got up from the spot he was lying on.

"I did," Jessie confirmed.

The two waited for the thing that was in the bush to come out. And out it did come. What came out was a small bear-cub looking pokémon. It had a crescent moon on it's head.

"It's a teddiursa!" Jessie practically squealed with delight. The bear tilted its head on its name being called out.

"_Teddi?_" It said.

Jessie looked like a little girl on Christmas Day. "It's so cute!" she shouted. "I got a plan. Let's capture that one too."

"That one too?" Meowth repeated.

"Think of it. If we can contain both cute critters than we will climb to the climax of the corporate ladder."

"You're right!" Meowth agreed.

"Do you have another net?"

"Do I like yarn?" the cat asked rhetorically. Meowth went and got another net from the balloon. "Now come to Meowth!" he shouted as he swung the net. The net ensnared the teddiursa as it fought to get out. "Another purr-fect capture," Meowth said proudly with a little pun added in for effect.

"Nicely done," Jessie commented. She then went over the the net and looked at the teddiursa. "Well aren't you the cutest thing ever."

"Tedi-"

"-URSA"

Jessie covered her ears to this very loud sound.

"Well, aren't you loud," she commented.

"I don't 'dink that was this one!" Meowth exclaimed when he saw what else was coming out of the bush. Standing there was a much larger bear like pokémon.

"_Ursaring_!" It shouted out. Jessie and Meowth just realized what a terrible mistake they had made.

"Oh, is this your teddiursa?" Jessie said in a very scared tone of voice. "Here, you can have it back; I never wanted it," she said as she snatched the net out of Meowth's hand and released the small cub. The ursaring was still not happy.

"_URSARING!"_ it shouted out. A yellow light started to form inside of its mouth. It was then shot of it's mouth in a yellow beam. Jessie and Meowth barely dodged it. The two screamed and started to run into the forest away from the angry ursaring.

* * *

"I'm back guys!" James practically sang out. In his hands was a grocery bag that had lots of food in it as well as some string to sow up the balloon with. James was in such a good mood that he walked into the clearing with his eyes closed. "And guess what," he continued. "I was able to get the last apple pie they had! I also got some dulux pokémon food for you too, Meowth." Meowth usually hated regular pokémon food and liked human food a lot better. The only type he would eat was the dulux type.

James opened his eyes and expected to see Jessie and Meowth overjoyed that he was able to get them their favorite foods, but that was contrary to what he did see. Or what he didn't see. Their balloon was still there, the vulpix was still there, but James' partners in crime were nowhere to be seen. James didn't think much of this. It was common for the other two to go off somewhere while waiting for him to come back. James put down the bag and took out the string. He got the needle that they always used from the nest of the balloon and then started to sow the balloon part up. He noticed that the engine was fixed, so Meowth had indeed fixed it before they went off somewhere.

It didn't take that long for James to sow up the balloon. After all the times that the twerps had blown it up, James had become an expert sower. Or at least in sowing balloons. James looked up into the sky and saw that it was about five in the afternoon. If they hurried, they could get the vulpix to the boss before nightfall.

James waited for a while longer until he started to get a bit worried. It was not like the other two to be out this long. What if something had happened to them?

"_Vulpix!" _The shout from the pokémon snapped James out of his thoughts. He looked over to where the vulpix was sitting inside the net.

"What is it, vulpix?" James asked the pokémon, mostly for acknowledgement since he wouldn't be able to understand what it said back. The fox pokémon pointed at something in the ground with its snout.

"What is it?" James repeated, now coming over to see what had caught the vulpix's attention. He looked on the ground where the vulpix had pointed, and saw large, pointed foot prints.

"These don't belong to any of us," James observed. The footprints looked a little like Meowth's, but were much larger.

"Hang on," James said as he came to a realization. "I know these footprints!" His eyes winded. "These are ursaring footprints!" James jumped up in a panic and started to follow the footprints. "The other two must have somehow angered one." The footprints followed out of the clearing and back into the forest. "I have to go find them!" James said and started to run out of the clearing. He stopped when he remembered something.

"What am I going to with you?" James wondered out loud as he walked back over to the vulpix. "I'll just hide you," he decided and took the net. He put the net inside of a bush.

"That should hide you," James said and then ran off in the direction that his friends had gone.

Little did James know, that the bush he hid the vulpix in was a thorn bush. What's more is that one of the thorns had cut a hole in the net, allowing the vulpix to escape.

And escape it did.


	3. An Average Day In

**Hey guys and welcome to chapter three of my story. I hope you are liking it. I find it hard to try and capture the true essence of Team Rocket, but I'm trying.**

* * *

James was running through the forest at top speed following the footprints. He had no idea how his companions were able to anger an ursaring, but following the footprints should led James to where his friends were. He was also able to see Meowth and Jessie's footprints along with the ursaring and large scorch marks on the trees and ground. This was all evidence pointing towards the fact that the ursaring was not happy.

After a little bit of running, James came across a cave that had all the footprints leading into it. He continued his pursuit and ran into the cave. It was a small cave, not more than 10 meters deep. Near the entrance of the cave was a very large bear pokémon.

James recognized it as an ursaring.

In front of the ursaring near the back of the cave were Jessie, Meowth, and Wobbuffet. Jessie and Meowth were hugging each other tightly and shaking in fear while Wobbuffet just stood there with his hand up is a salute pose. It was, however, equally scared. They watched the ursaring move closer and closer.

"Hey you!" James called out from the entrance. "You get away from them!"

"James!" Jessie and Meowth said in unison.

"_Wobbuffet!"_

The ursaring slowly turned around to face James. He started to cower when he realized that maybe attracting its attention wasn't the best decision.

"Um… hey look, this is all a big misunderstanding, see?" James said in a very shaky voice. "We really don't want any trouble. I think that whatever they did to anger you was an accident."

"No, we deliberately tried to take that teddiursa," Meowth said before Jessie could put her hand over his mouth.

"What!" James said in disbelief.

"We didn't know that it belonged to an ursaring!" Meowth shouted out.

The ursaring was not happy was James' attempt for peace and shot another Hyper Beam out from its mouth. James hit the ground and ducked as the yellow energy beam went right over his head.

"Well if that's how you want to play it, then so be it!" James said as he took a pokéball of his belt and enlarged it. "Let's go, Victreebel!" he yelled out and threw the ball. It opened up with a flash of light.

"Aehhhh!" Victreebel cried as it came out. As soon as it did come out, however, it turned around and swallowed James.

"No, not me, Victreebel, get the ursaring! Use razor leaf!" James shouted. The grass type jumped off of its master and launched sharp leaves at the bear. They all hit the ursaring, but it just seemed to anger it more. It launched another Hyper Beam, and it hit Victreebel square in the chest. It was flung back and hit James, knocking him over. Since James had distracted the ursaring, Meowth, Jessie, and Wobbuffet ran past the ursaring and over to where James was on the ground. They all looked towards the ursaring, who happened to be charging another Hyper Beam. All five of the people and pokémon let out a scream before they were hit with the intensity of the beam. The force pushed them out of the cave and sent them flying across the sky.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" Jessie, James, and Meowth said in unision.

"_Wobbuffet!" _

* * *

To say that the man who sat at the desk was spiffy would be an understatement. He was wearing a black top hat that complemented his long, brown hair nicely. He was wearing a monocle with a chain attached to it. His black suit was tucked into his dress pants of the same color. His black shoes completed the look. In one of his hands was an ornate cane with all types of jewels in it. His other hand was stroking his small brown mustache. The man wasn't too old, only about late thirties or early forties. No one knew exactly which because the man never told anyone.

Beside the man was a small, dark blue, bipedal pokémon. It had three feathers that acted like a tail as well as a very short one on its head. Its claws were very long and very sharp. It stood against the wall with its arms crossed and eyes closed. The big double doors opening was what made the sneasel open one eye. The man at the desk also turned around in his chair to face whoever was coming in.

"Sir, we've found another one," another man, who was noticeable less swanky, said once the doors opened. He was just wearing normal attire like jeans and a t-shirt as well as a beenie.

"Where?" The man at the desk asked slightly intrigued.

"A little north of where we are."

"Is it owned by a trainer?"

"The pokéball signature is coming back positive, but it is currently in the hands of two Team Rocket agents. So we don't know if it belongs to them, or if they stole it from someone else."

"Interesting," the man at the desk said as he turned to the sneasel that was still leaning on the wall. "What do you say we have one of our newest recruits prove their worth?"

"Witch one?" the sneasel asked back in english. "The ampharos?"

"Isn't that our only new one?" the man continued the question game.

"Yeah, it is." The dark type pushed herself up from where she was leaning and walked past the man at the door. She continued to walk through the base to where the sleeping quarters were. There were lots of other people running around the base doing this and that. All of them got out of the sneasel's way. They all knew she was the boss's pet, and so no wanted to get her angry. The sneasel paid no mind to this.

Eventually, the sharp claw pokémon entered the barracks. There were tons of different pokémon there, ranging from Muks to Jumpluffs. The sneasel wasn't interested in any of them, however. She approached an ampharos who was sitting by himself in a corner. The electric type looked up at her.

"_Yeah? What do you want, Lucy_?" The ampharos said in a monotone voice.

"That's Miss Lucy to you," the sneasel said as she crossed her arms. "And I don't want anything. The boss wants you."

"_What for_?" he asked.

"I don't know. Some kind of mission to prove yourself. The boss will give you the debriefing."

"_Alright_," the ampharos sat up and went with Lucy to the boss's room. Once they got there, Lucy took her place beside the man at the desk, leaning against the wall.

"What's your name, son?" the boss asked.

"_Jake_," the ampharos replied.

"Jake," Lucy translated for her master.

"Alright, Jake. Your mission is to capture a vulpix that is in the hands of two Team Rocket members. Deal with them as you see fit; just don't hurt the vulpix, understand?"

"Yes," Jake nodded his head.

"Good. Here is where they are now," he said while pointing to a map that was on his desk. Jake approached the desk in order to see the map. "They will probably leave soon, so you may need to go fast in order to be able to track them. Now get to it," the man said and turned around in his chair once again. The amparos left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Do you think he can do it?" Lucy asked.

"We'll see."

* * *

When Jessie, James, and Meowth had finally returned to where their balloon was, the sun was already setting. The ursaring had blown them farther than they thought it would have.

"Alright, now we can finally get the vulpix to the boss," Jessie exclaimed, very exhausted by the ursaring. However, when she looked at the place it was, it was gone.

"James, where did my vulpix go?" Jessie started to panic.

"Don't you fret, my frantic friend," James alliterated. "I had the foresight to hide the vulpix just in case someone would come by." James then went over to the bush he had put the bag in. "See," James said triumphantly as he pulled the bag out, "it's right here."

"Well if that's a vulpix, then that's the most translucent one I've seen," Meowth commented with his head down. James was confused with what Meowth said until he looked at the net and saw that nothing was in it.

"Wh-what?!" James shouted out of shock. "But I… But it was…" James then noticed the hole that was gaping open in the net. He concluded that the net must of somehow broken and allowed the vulpix to escape. Not that it mattered now. He was going to feel Jessie's wrath no matter what happened. He started to sulk.

"James!" Jessie shouted. "I thought you said that you had hid it, not let it escape!"

"The bush must have ripped the net and let it escape!" James called out in his defence.

"You were supposed to take care of it!"

"No, that was your job! I would get the food and string and you make sure the vulpix didn't escape!"

"But you were the person who put the bag in the bush!"

"Well, it wasn't my fault that you weren't here guarding it!"

"Because of you, that vulpix could be anywhere in Johto by now!" Jessie yelled.

"Like right by our balloon?" Meowth questioned.

"Yes, even right by-" Jessie stopped herself once she realized what Meowth said. She looked over in the direction of their balloon. Right next to it was the little red fluff ball. "... our balloon…" Jessie finished. All three of them were standing there speechless.

"_Vulpix!"_

"Why is she still here?" James asked to no one.

"Who cares!" Jessie cried out. She couldn't believe their luck. "Alright, Meowth, capture that thing again and let's get going."

"Alright," Meowth replied, still recovering from what he just saw. He went back over to the balloon and got another net out. He captured the vulpix in the net just as easily as James had last time.

"Well then, boys, fame and fortune is waiting for us, so let's get going!" Jessie shouted with joy and hopped into their newly fixed balloon. Meowth hopped in second, leaving James standing there, still dumbfounded.

"James, aren't you coming?" Jessie snapped James out of his trance.

"Right…" he said and then climbed into the balloon as well. Meowth turned the fire on and the balloon inflated, lifting them off the ground.

"I just don't get it," James pondered once they were up a lot higher.

"What's the matter Jimmy?" Meowth asked. The cat had passed the net to Jessie who had tied another knot in it.

"I don't understand why the vulpix didn't run off. It's like it wanted to be caught."

"Well, maybe it does. How do you know that this cutie doesn't want to go to the boss." Jessie said while nuzzling the vulpix.

"Somehow, I doubt that," James said in a less than enthusiastic voice.

"Well, you know what I always say," Meowth interjected. "Don't look a gift rapidash in the mouth."

"I guess you're right in that fact." James said.

Little did Team Rocket know, however, that they were being followed. And the ampharos that was doing the stalking had a perfect plan as to capture the vulpix.

**Sorry for the shorter chapter, but there wasn't a lot that I wanted to put into this one. Anyways, thanks for reading.**


	4. A Delivery Dilemma

**Hey guys. Welcome to chapter four. Sorry for not uploading in a while. I've kinda felt it hard to write lately. Especially with the ending of my other story coming closer. Also in my free time I've been binge watching the Pokemon anime. I've watched over half of Season 11 in the time it's taking me to write this. XD Anyway, enjoy. **

* * *

"Wait, how are we going to get the vulpix to the boss if we don't have it's pokéball?" James questioned as he leaned back, arms behind his head. There wasn't a lot of room inside the balloon, but there was enough space for everyone to sit down. All three of them were leaning against the walls of the nest. In the middle of the three was the vulpix who was still in the small net they had caught it in. It seemed comfortable enough, or at the very least, wasn't trying to escape. It was just laying there, looking up at the clouds that it could see at its angle and how beautiful they looked with the red glow of the sunset.

Seeing how the net wasn't fireproof, the vulpix could have escaped at anytime by using a fire attack, but it hadn't yet. Meowth had thought of bringing up the idea of switching the vulpix's net to one that was fireproof to the others, but he decided against it. If the vulpix hadn't even tried to escape yet, it was probably because she thought the net was already fireproof. Just blurting out that it wasn't before they would have the chance to switch it just didn't seem like the best thing to do. Meowth could do it himself, but if the vulpix escaped while he changing it, then he would never hear the end of it from the other two. So, he decided to just leave it alone.

Jessie had been daydreaming when James had caught her attention. She didn't hear entirely what he had said because of that. After she was snapped out of her thoughts, she looked over to where James was sitting.

"What was that?" She asked, wanting for him to repeat what he had said. James momentarily wondered what Jessie was thinking about but passed it off as probably something benign.

"The vulpix; how are we going to transport it if we don't have its pokéball?"

Jessie hadn't thought of this before now. None of them had. They were so distracted by the fact that they had actually managed to capture a pokémon for the boss that they never thought of _how _they were going to get it to Giovanni.

"I… don't know…" Jessie admitted.

"Guess we should've thought of 'dat sooner," Meowth said while scratching his head.

"Well, it's not like we can just bring it to him, seeing how we're in Johto." Jessie pointed out. "And since it already has an owner we can't just capture it again, so…" Jessie stopped, hoping that the others would bring up a plan.

"Hey," James said to get his partners' attention, "Aren't there Team Rocket depo stations where we can bring pokémon and then they take them directly to headquarters?"

"Are there?" Jessie asked, having heard nothing of the kind.

"Yeah, I remember hearing about them. They're for Team Rocket members who capture a lot of pokémon at once and can't teleport them all, or for people who just can't get them to headquarters directly for whatever reason. I think they are strung all across Johto. We could drop the vulpix off there."

"'Dat's a good plan, but do you know where one is right now?" Meowth asked.

"Well… no… I don't," James said, realizing that not knowing where one was was a problem.

"Maybe we can find another Team Rocket member out here that can point us in the right direction." Meowth said with some optimism.

"Who would we find out here?" Jessie said. "Remember, the only reason we're not at a base doing grunt work is because we are Team Rocket agents. We travel around and capture pokémon. It would be highly unlikely to find any others out here just wandering around like we are."

Jessie had a point. All of them sat and contemplated what their next move would be. Suddenly, James' stomach growled. He held his belly.

"Maybe we should land and eat first. We might think of something once we're full," James suggested.

"I have no objection to 'dat," Meowth said as he got up and turned down the fire to let the balloon descend. Jessie didn't say anything, but she, too, was hungry. She just didn't want to bring it up.

After a few minutes of slowing falling, the balloon landed on the ground. Jessie and James got the picnic blanket out that they took everywhere while Meowth got out the food James had bought. He put the food onto the picnic blanket while James got out the pokémon's food bowls and Jessie poured out their food into those bowls. They had done this so much that it had basically become routine. Once everything was set up, James took his pokéballs off his belt and released both of his pokémon. Jessie did the same, except with only one pokéball since Wobbuffet had already let itself out.

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"Come on out, it's eating time!" James said as his two pokémon materialized. Weezing was extremely hungry and dived into eating right away. Victreebel did too, but pokémon food wasn't what it was interested in eating.

"No, don't eat me, Victreebel! Eat the food!" James called out when his grass type had swallowed him. Jessie and Meowth just let out a sigh. They both knew that it was just Victreebel's way of showing its apprecation to James, but it happened way too often. Eventually, Victreebel got off of its master and went to eat its own food. Arbok and Wobbuffet were eating their fair share as well. With all their pokémon taken care of, the trio sat down and started to eat food themselves.

Jessie started to scarf down her apple pie that she loved so much while Meowth gobbled up the deluxe pokémon food James had bought for them. James was about to bite into his food, until he remembered that they had one extra pokémon on their hands. James took some more pokémon food and an extra bowl they had on hand and brought it over to the balloon where the vulpix still was.

"James, what are you doing?" Jessie asked upon seeing him grab to food bag and start to head over to where the vulpix lay.

"I'm bringing some food to the vulpix we caught."

"Don't do that, James, it's a waste of food."

"What? Why?"

"Because, we aren't going to have the vulpix for long, so giving it any food now will just be wasteful. It can eat once it's at the depot. Besides, it wouldn't hurt it if it went hungry. Food is expensive you know."

"_Wobbuffet,"_

"Well…when you're right you're right," James said as he went back over to where Jessie and Meowth were sitting. He felt a little bad not giving the vulpix any food, but Jessie did have a point.

"Hang on," Meowth interrupted before James was even able to sit down again. "Do you 'dink that the boss is going to want a half-starved vulpix? We need to keep it well fed so it will be in tip top shape for him."

"Hmm…" Jessie and James said in unision. "I guess you got me there," Jessie admitted.

"Alright then," James said and then went back over to where vulpix was.

"_Vulpix!" _It chirped upon seeing the food. James poured some food into the bowl and placed the bowl next to the net so the vulpix could eat but also still be in the net. James went back to the others and began eating once more.

* * *

The ampharos had tracked them easily enough. After all, it was hard to miss a large meowth-shaped hot air balloon. Currently, they were eating dinner and soon it would be dark. The vulpix was still inside the balloon. He could try and sneak over and grab her, but they might see him now. Jake decided that the best course of action would be to wait until they all fell asleep. Then he'd steal the vulpix right from under their noses. He would just have to be stealthy.

"This is Lucy, do you copy?" a voice came through Jake's ear piece.

"_Yeah_," Jake whispered.

"Can you see our target?"

"_No, but I know where she is._"

"Alright, good. Remember that protecting the vulpix is your number one priority. Don't let anything happen to her."

"_Roger._"

* * *

Because the trio had set up their little 'camp' right next to a dirt road, they were seen by anyone who came down said road. Some people did come down the road, and they were in a jeep.

There were two people in the jeep. One male, the other female. The female one had long golden hair. The male, short green hair. The two of them wore almost identical outfits to the ones Jessie and James wore, except they were black instead of white. The woman was relaxing in the jeep with her eyes closed while the man was driving. The woman opened her eyes for only a second, but a second was all she needed to see the people on the side of the road. They were a little hard to spot in the dying light, but their forms were unmistakable.

"Are those who I think they are?" the woman asked.

"Afraid so," the man replied back.

"Stop the jeep," the woman commanded. The man followed her orders.

Jessie, James, and Meowth rubbed their stomach after the meal they had. It was a rare occasion that they were able to fill themselves up. Most of the time they only were able to eat a few crackers or a cookie or two. It was a nice feeling to be full. Jessie and James were about to put their pokémon back in their pokéballs before they heard the rumbling of an engine. They turned around and saw a green jeep stop on the road next to them.

"Long time, no see, Jessie," the woman in the jeep said as she stood up. Jessie recognized that voice.

"Cassidy!" she yelled in disgust.

"And it's Biff as well," James noted.

"It's Butch!" the green hair man yelled out, annoyed that everyone kept forgetting his name.

"What are you doing here?" Jessie yelled out.

"I could ask you losers the same thing," Cassidy said with a little smirk.

"Who are you calling losers?!" Jessie was furious.

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"Yeah, that's ex-losers to you!" James shouted. Cassidy was a bit confused by this.

"What do you mean 'ex-losers'?" she asked.

"I'll have you know that we have finally captured a pokémon and are en route to bring it to the boss." James said, getting quite riled up himself.

"Really?" Cassidy said, not believing them. "Show it to me."

"Alright, cuz here it is," Meowth said as he pulled out the net with the vulpix in it.

"_Vulpix!" _

Cassidy and Butch couldn't stop themselves from laughing.

"Is-is that all?" Cassidy said when she could finally talk.

"Do you think that the boss would actually want that puny thing?" Butch taunted.

"Yes, and when we do get it to him, he'll promote us to executives." Jessie said in a very annoyed voice.

"In your dreams!" Cassidy called out before bursting out laughing again.

"Oh yeah? Then we'll show you! Tell us where the nearest depot station is and we'll bring it to him!" Jessie practically screeched.

"If you want to embarrass yourself, then be my guest," Cassidy said as she sat back down in her seat.

"The nearest one is a few weeks walk south of here." Butch said as he revved up the engine again.

"So you better get going. We have are own assignment, so sadly we won't be there to see the spectacle of you guys making fools of yourselves, but we'll hear it from the others. See you losers later!" Cassidy finished as Butch drove away.

"Grrrr...She makes my blood boil!" Jessie yelled. "She's going to regret mocking us once we're executives."

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"So let's get moving!" Jessie said as she marched over to the balloon.

"Um… Jessie, it's getting pretty late. Do you think we could camp out here?" James asked with much less enthusiasm than Jessie had.

"And I'm not going to be able to fly if I can't see any'ding" Meowth made a point.

"Well, I guess you're right. I am a bit tired myself," Jessie said before letting out a large yawn. "Alright, let's settle down here then."

Jessie got out the sleeping bags while James recalled all of his pokémon. Jessie did the same when she had given James and Meowth their sleeping bags. Meowth's was obviously smaller than the other two; they had a very hard time finding one that fit him. Jessie and James both took off their boots and gloves as well as their overshirts. The trio crawled into their bags and started to fall asleep. Jessie took something golden out of her pocket and rubbed it a bit before putting it back, but what it was, James did not see. It didn't matter to him anyway. Eventually, the three fell asleep.

* * *

Jake decided that this was his time to act. He had waited about an hour after they others had all crawled in their sleeping bags and he was now fairly certain that they were all asleep. The ampharos snuck out of his hiding place in the bushes, being careful that his tail wasn't shining. They were all parked pretty close to the balloon, so he would have to sneak right by them. As Jake tip-toed his way passed the sleeping humans, he now could get a closer look at them. The two humans had very strange hair colors. The man's was a shade of blue or maybe purple while the woman had a very bright red color. Sleeping next to the two humans was a meowth which, from what he had heard, the humans were very fond of. Jake had also heard him talk earlier.

_Guess Lucy's not the only one who can talk to humans _Jake thought. Eventually, the ampharos made his way to the balloon. As he peered inside, he saw a bunch of supplies, lot of nuts and bolt to different machines, and something that looked like a rocket launcher in the corner. Those things, however, were not what Jake wanted. It was the small, red bundle of fur in the center of the balloon that he wanted. Slowly, so he didn't wake the vulpix, the ampharos picked up the net that held the vulpix and started to sneak away.

_That was easy_ Jake thought as he passed all the sleepers and headed back into the brush.

Or at least, he thought they were sleepers.

There happened to be one of them that wasn't totally asleep. And he was all but happy that someone was taking their prize.

"Where do you 'dink you're take'n dat vulpix?" Jake heard a voice behind him. He turned around to see the meowth from earlier standing with his arms crossed. "I'm not just going to let some thief steal what we've rightfully stolen."

"_Get back or I'll zap you!" _Jake yelled in an attempt to intimidate him. He could just run now, but that meowth would follow him. He hoped that he could deter him. The cat just smirked.

"You'll zap me, huh? You think that scares me? I've been zapped more times than you've electrified anyone in your life!" The meowth extended his claws. "You don't scare me one bit."

The other two humans were stirring because of all the noise.

"Meowth, what's all the ruckus? the woman asked as she let out a large yawn.

"Do you even know what time it is?" the man said with an equally large yawn. Jake took this as his cue to get out of there. He started to sprint into the brush in a hope to lose them.

"No you don't!" Meowth yelled out as he gave pursuit.

* * *

Jessie and James had no idea what was happening. All they really saw was an ampharos that Meowth had followed into the night, so the two threw on their boots and gloves and then started to run after their furry friend. Any sign of sleepiness had disappeared. It was hard to be able to follow Meowth through the darkness, their only light being from the moon. Eventually, however, Jessie and James caught up with their furry friend, who had trapped the ampharos in a corner by some cliff faces.

"No where to run now!" Meowth taunted. The other two finally saw the reason that Meowth had followed this ampharos through the night. In its hands was the little vulpix that they had stole.

"Hey, that's ours!" Jessie shouted.

"Yeah, we stole that fair and square," James said.

"_Prrro," _the electric type cried out.

"Oh yeah? Well our boss wants that vulpix too," Meowth retorted back.

"_Prro!" _it cried out as it sent electricity through its body and launched a thunderbolt at the trio. They were all electrocuted, and afterwords they fell to the ground. They were not easily beat, however, as they soon shook it off and got back up.

"You think we'll be stopped by such a weak electric attack?" Jessie said in fury.

"_Prrrro?" _it once again cried out.

"Who are we, anyway!?" Meowth copied his question back.

"You better prepare for trouble, I'm glad you asked!" Jessie said while taking a pose.

"You better make it double, you're in for a blast!" James rymed while taking a similar pose.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth, that's right."

The ampharos didn't look impressed.

"Looky here buster," Jessie said while pointing at the ampharos, "we want that vulpix, so give it back, or we'll take it by force."

"_Prro" _the ampharos said as he held the net tighter.

"_Vulpix"_ the vulpix cried out in fear.

"Alright then, you asked for it," Jessie said as she took a pokeball of her belt and enlarged it. "Let's go Arbok!" she yelled as she threw it.

"_Ssssarbok!" _it cried once it was released.

"You too Weezing!" James shouted as he mimicked Jessie.

"_Weezing,"_

The two pokémon had already awoken from their sleep while their masters were running, so they were roaring to go.

"Alright Arbok, get that net back!" Jessie commanded. The snake nodded as it lunged forward towards the ampharos. The electric type launched another thunderbolt that stopped Arbok in its tracks.

"Sssssarbok!" it cried as it was hit by the thunderbolt.

"Weezing, Sludge Bomb, let's go!" James called out to his pokémon. The poison type shot out several black sludge balls at the ampharos. The electric type flinched as each one of them made contact. it shook them off and launched another thunderbolt at Weezing, which hit it square on the chest.

"Alright Arbok, Poison Sting!" Jessie commanded. Arbok opened its mouth and released lots of small spikes covered in poison. The ampharos tried to fight back by throwing another thunderbolt, but it ultimately failed as it was not able to shoot down all of them and some of them hit it. The ampharos type shielded the vulpix from the needles with its body. After the barragehad ended, the ampharos charged another thunderbolt, but instead of launching it, the electric type fell to its knees. The ampharos started to cough. It had been poisoned.

"Now then, I suggest you hand over that vulpix before you get anymore hurt," Jessie said with triumph. The ampharos tried to get up onto its feet, but wasn't able to in the end and fell back down on the ground, unconscious.

"Hah, he wasn't 'dat tough," Meowth said as he went back over to claim their prize.

"_Vulpix!" _the vulpix said once Meowth picked it back up. Jessie and James didn't know if this was a cry of joy of them saving it, or a cry of sadness because they had gotten it back.

"What should we do about the ampharos?" James asked. "We can't have it following us."

"True…" Jessie agreed. "As much as I'd like to bring it to the boss, I think it would be too heavy to lug around."

"We should probably just trap it with a net so it will be slowed down and can't follow us." Meowth suggested.

"Good idea!" Jessie shouted as she took of running back in the direction of their camp. She was back in a small amount of time with a net from the balloon.

"Here we go," she said as she took the net and trapped it. "That should keep it until we wake up."

Jessie and James recalled Arbok and Weezing respectively. The three of them went back to their camp. Jessie and James took off their boots and gloves and all three of them climbed back into their sleeping bags. James did have a slight worry since that ampharos said that its boss had also wanted that vulpix, but it soon disappeared when he fell back asleep.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. **


	5. Spider Shenanigans

**Hey guys and welcome to chapter 5. I hope you are enjoying reading this story. I think this one is a bit more popular than my other one, which is fine. Anyway, onto the story**

* * *

Team Rocket had left early in the morning. After all, they needed to get the vulpix to their boss quickly, especially now that they had another mysterious organization who also wanted the fire type for themselves. The trio had a quick breakfast, and then they packed up and started out.

"Aren't you afraid that ampharos will follow us again?" James asked in concern while Meowth started to turn on the fire of the balloon.

"Are you kidding?" Jessie said with sarcasm. "We'll be long gone by the time that sheep wakes up and gets out of that net."

James was still unsure, but he decided not argue.

For most of the morning, they flew their balloon onwards without stopping. Everyone was bored. After all, there wasn't much to do in a hot air balloon high in the sky. The trio was finding ways to pass the time.

"I'm still trying to think of what that ampharos meant by 'its boss'." James said, being the thoughtful one of the group.

"It's probably some know-it-all rich guy who loves vulpix and wanted one for himself," Jessie said, "so he hired that shrimp to get the nearest one it could find, which was ours. Obviously he underestimated our strength."

"That would be a first," James commented.

"Ya know, I just thought of som'th'n'," Meowth spoke up.

"What is that?" Jessie asked.

"How will da boss know that it was us who gave him 'dat vulpix?" Meowth asked.

"Simple, we just put 'from Jessie, James, and Meowth' on it," Jessie said.

"On the vulpix?" James skeptically questioned.

"Well if you have any better ideas then tell me."

"No… I don't," James said. He didn't know how they were going to tell the boss that the vulpix was from them. He would think about it later. But for now, his empty stomach was the thing that was most important.

"Hey Jess, we've been flying all morning without stop. Could it be possible for us to stop and eat?"

"Remember that our top priority is not food. It's to get this vulpix to the boss," Jessie said while pointing to the small fox by her feet. "We can eat once we get to the depot."

"But Botch said that it was a few weeks' walk, which would translate to a few days of straight flying," James complained.

"It's Butch," Meowth spoke up, not sure how everyone kept getting that guy's name wrong.

"What are you, his lawyer?" Jessie asked in a sarcastic voice. "Anyway, let's at least make it a little farther before we settle down to eat," Jessie dictated. James didn't argue. Instead, he took out a bag of crackers that he kept in his pocket and started to nibble. They would tide him over until they stopped to eat.

"_Vulpix,_" a quiet cry came from the one inside the net. James looked over to see it staring at him.

"What do you want?" James asked the little fox inside the net.

"_Vulpix Vul-" _it said again

"She's asking if she could have a cracker." Meowth translated.

"Really?" James said surprised. He had to say, it was really helpful having a pokémon translator. James looked back over to the vulpix.

"_Vulpix,_" it agreed by nodding its head.

"Well here you go, little vulpix," James said as he took a cracker out of the package and slipped it through the net. The vulpix smiled and let out a cheerful yelp. Then it, too, started to nibble on the cracker. James smiled a bit at the sight. Just then, the lavender haired man saw something on the vulpix that he had missed before. A coller. James took a better look of it. On it, a tag hanging.

"Scarlett," James read it aloud.

"What?" Jessie asked. She bent over to look at the vulpix.

"That's what it says on the name tag," James answered. Now all three of them were looking at the vulpix, which made it a little nervous.

"Is that the name of the person who owned it?" Jessie asked herself.

"More likely it's that name of 'dis vulpix," Meowth deduced. "I 'dink that's what the her trainer called her if I remember correctly."

"_Vulpix,_" the fox nodded its head to tell them that they were correct. It then continued to eat the cracker that James had given it.

"Scarlett, huh?" Jessie said the name to herself. "That's a nice name. The boss is going to love you."

James' stomach growled again.

"Jessie, can we stop soon, I'm really hungry," James asked again. The crackers really weren't doing it for him.

"Not yet. We need to make it a little farther before we stop."

"Alright…" James said depressingly.

* * *

A bright light met Jake when he woke up. This didn't help his now growing headache at all. He rubbed his head, and tried to stand, but was stopped by something encasing him. He saw that he was inside a net of some kind. Jake looked around him for the vulpix, but found nothing. This made Jake very dismal. He had failed his very first mission. He didn't even think that it would be very hard.

"_Guess I underestimated their strength,_" Jake said to himself. He decided that it would be a good idea to call up Lucy and tell her that he was okay. Jake pressed a small button on his ear piece.

"_Hello? Lucy, do you copy?_" Jake had to wait a bit before any response came.

"Jake? Is that you?" Lucy's voice came in from the other end.

"_In the flesh,_" Jake confirmed.

"Jake, are you alright? What happened? You didn't respond for the longest time."

"_Yeah, I'm fine,_" Jake responded. "_A bit shaken, but that's it._"

"Do you have the target?" Lucy asked.

"_Negitive. Team Rocket got away_." Jake was now pulling on net.

"You let them get away?" Lucy's voice was now turning from concern to anger.

"_I didn't let them get away,_" Jake defended. "_I snuck into their camp after dark and got the vulpix, but I guess I wasn't stealthy enough because one of their pokémon woke up. He chased me until I got trapped by a cliff face. The two humans caught up with him and battled me. One of them poisoned me with her Arbok. I passed out after that,_" Jake finished explaining. The net he was trapped in was starting to annoy him. He let out a thunderbolt unto it, but to no avail.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked when she heard the thunderbolt.

"_A net, that's what_." Jake had had it with the net. The end of his tail started to glow so brightly that it looked like the sun. Then, a large green beam shot out of it and cut right through the net like it was air. Jake was finally able to stretch his back.

"Anyway, come back to HQ. We'll update you on what's happening."

"_Roger," _Jake replied. He lifted his hand off the ear piece and started to head back to base, knowing that his loss wouldn't be accepted well by the boss.

* * *

Jessie had finally let them stop and eat, which James was very thankful for. It was true, they could just eat inside of the balloon, and sometimes they did, but all of their pokémon couldn't fit inside along with them. James just didn't feel right eating without his pokémon eating as well unless it was something small, like crackers. So for the most part, James waited until they were on the ground to eat.

They had set everything up as they usually did. Everything was the exact same as last time. The only difference was that this time they had taken Scarlett out of the balloon and placed her next to all their other pokémon. She was, however, still inside the net. The group had started to use Scarlett's name instead of just, 'that vulpix', partly because it sounded better, and partly because of formality.

Little did the trio know, however, that they had just landed inside some pokémon's territory, and those pokémon weren't at all happy that the humans were there. But, they did need some more food, and humans tasted pretty good. So they snuck up on the group of people and pokémon very carefully.

In fact, Jessie, James, and Meowth didn't even know they were there until string had wrapped itself around them. It tightened around their arms, making them unable to move. More string entangled around the pokémon. Wobbuffet and Victreebel had their hands and vines tied up while Arbok and Weezing were tied down to the ground.

"Hey, who did this? This isn't funny!" Jessie shouted. They all looked around them, but Meowth was the first to see who had captured them.

"It's ariados!" he said to inform his companions. They too looked over and saw the spider pokémon closing in on them. There were tons of them, or at least, about 12. Jessie, James, and Meowth couldn't move because their arms had been tied by the string. Victreebel tried to extent its vines out to be able to use Razor leaf, but the string had blocked all attempts. It was surprisingly strong, and neither Wobbuffet nor Arbok could break through it. The string was shot in such a precise manner that it cut right through the net that held Scarlett and trapped her too.

Weezing released some of the gas that resided inside of it and shrank, allowing the string to slide right off of it. The ariados, however, didn't quite like this. Some of them stopped their pursuit and quickly launched more String Shot at Weezing while the others continued going towards the humans. It came so fast, that Weezing didn't have any time to dodge it. This time, instead of just tying it to the ground, the ariados completely covered the poison gas pokémon with string, preventing all movement.

The other ariados finally got to Jessie, James, and Meowth. They picked the three upon their backs and started to go back in the direction they came from. The trio was completely helpless because of the string. They were fighting back and struggling, but it didn't make much of a difference.

Since the ariados knew that the poison types wouldn't make much of a good meal, and the Wobbuffet would be way too chewy, they just settled for the vulpix. One of them went over and put the vulpix on their back.

The ariados squad, having stole all the food that they wanted, headed back into the forest.

"Hey, you put me down this instant!" Jessie shouted. "I don't want to become spider food!"

And she wouldn't, not as long as Arbok had anything to say about it.

With new found vigour, Arbok stretched it's body to a place where it could bite the string. It didn't take long for the entanglement of string to snap. Before the ariados were even able to know that it had escaped, Arbok slithered over to the one that carried Jessie and shot a Poison Sting right at his body point blank. The ariados recoiled a bit, but overall, it didn't do much. It countered with a Night Shade, which sent Arbok staggering back. The snake was quick to recover and rammed into the spider with surprising speed. This caused both the ariados and Jessie to go flying into the air.

Both Jessie and the ariados had gotten some air time, but were now falling down to the ground fast. From all the times Jessie had blasted off, she had gotten used to falling from high heights, but she had time to prepare then. Now was different because she couldn't prepare to move, and she knew that hitting the ground was going to hurt. Jessie closed her eyes and prepared for the ground, but Arbok wasn't going to let that happen. In one swift movement, Arbok jumped up into the air, wrapped itself around Jessie, and angled itself so it could take the force of the fall. The two landed onto the ground with a thud.

Jessie still had her eyes closed, but opened them when she realized that she was not only on the ground, but unharmed as well. She looked around and saw that Arbok had taken the fall for her. This moved her a bit.

"Arbok?" she whispered, being very concerned for her pokémon.

The ariados, on the other hand, did not have a giant snake to help it, and so it took the full hit from the ground. It shakily got up, very hurt from the fall. It was about to launch another Night Shade at the dazed arbok, but that was before it was smashed in the head with a Razor Leaf, knocking it into one of its friends. That 'friend' happened to be the very one that was carrying Meowth, so when the first ariados was knocked into the second, Meowth was thrown off the spider's back. It wasn't as dramatic as Jessie's was since he just flew a meter or so before landing on the ground.

The two ariados looked over to where the Razor Leaf had come from. The victreebel from earlier had found a way to escape their net and had cut the other two pokémon free along with it. Now the two ariados knew they were outnumbered, so they decided to try and catch up to the rest of their kind, who were now some bit ahead.

"Jessie, Meowth, help me!" James cried out as he was to only one of the trio not to have been saved. Victreebel tried to go after James, but was ultimately too slow to catch up to the ariados.

By the time that Jessie had realized that they were still missing one human and one pokémon, it was already too late. The ariados had disappeared into the forest, and Jessie couldn't see where they had gone.

Jessie knew that she needed to go after them, but first things first. She stood up without using her hands and checked on her Arbok who may have just saved her from a few broken bones.

"Arbok, are you alright?" she asked her snake. Arbok slowly stood upright and weakly nodded its head. "Could you…" Jessie said, while nodding to the string that was still on her. Arbok bit down hard on string, eventually releasing her. "Thank you Arbok," Jessie said as she hugged her pokémon. Arbok let out a week, "ssabok," with a smile.

"Hey, I hate to interrupt the nice moment you're hav'n'," Meowth called out, still tied, "but we really need to go after those ariados." Victreebel went over to Meowth and shot a Razor Leaf, freeing him from his bonedeges. "Thanks, pal," the cat thanked his grass type friend.

"Right," Jessie agreed. "We'll never catch them on foot, so let's follow them in the balloon." Jessie took out both her pokéballs and enlarged them. "Arbok, Wobbuffet, return."

After she had recalled both of them, Jessie ran into the balloon. Meowth and Victreebel also came in. Because it could levitate, Weezing decided just to hover around the balloon while it flew and not take up space. Meowth started the fire in the balloon and off they went in search of James and Scarlett.

* * *

Jake slowly walked into the boss's office, knowing that he would be angry with him. There he was, where he always was, at his desk, with Lucy to his right, up against the wall.

"So, Lucy tells me you weren't able to get the vulpix?" he spoke up. Jake nodded. The boss let out a sigh. "Well, did you at least get some intel on them? What other pokémon do they have?

"_There were two agents. The female one was called Jessie. She had an arbok and a wobbuffet," _Jake told the boss. Lucy started to translate for him. "_The male was called James. He had a Weezing and a Victreebel." _

"Typical that Team Rocket would have a lot of poison types," the boss said once Lucy was done translating. "Was that all the pokémon they had?"

"_Well, they did have a meowth, but I'm not sure which one owned him because they never put him back in his pokéball. I assume they think highly of him because he ate and slept with the humans instead of the other pokémon._"

"Do you know why that is?" This time, Lucy asked the question.

"_Well, he was able to speak human," _Jake added as a side comment. Lucy stuttered a bit as she translated. She had a look of surprise that Jake had never expected to see from her.

"Could speak human?" the boss asked back to make sure. Jake nodded. "Interesting… Did you find out what they were doing with that vulpix?"

"_Yes, they said they were bringing it to their own boss," _Jake said. Lucy was still thinking about the last thing Jake had said, but snapped out of it when she remembered that she needed to translate.

"I see… No matter, we need that vulpix. Jake, I'll give you another chance."

Jake let out a sigh of relief.

"But since these agents are a little stronger than we originally thought, Lucy, I want you to go with him."

"Me?" Lucy asked. It was only for very important missions that the boss sent Lucy.

"You do remember how much money the client is giving us for a vulpix?"

"No, but it must be big for you to sent me," Lucy said.

"Indeed, it is."

"Alright, I'm ready. Where are we going?" Lucy asked

"Our scanners indicate that they have now headed south of our position here. They've stopped again, so you better get over there fast. You should probably take your vehicle to get there. "

"Yes sir," Lucy responded. She got up off of the wall and took some keys that were on the desk. As she passed Jake, she gave him a weak punch to the shoulder. "Let's go."

"Right,"

* * *

Jessie, Meowth, and James' pokémon were all high above the forest, looking for any signs of where the ariados could have taken James and Scarlett. The only thing they had to go on was the direction they went. they were searching for anything that looked like a spider's nest. Thankfully, the forest wasn't that thick, and so the tree's didn't obscure their vision to much.

"Any sign of him? Jessie asked while she was looking through her binoculars.

"Not yet," Meowth replied, useing James' binoculars.

"Keep looking. There has to be some clue as to where he is."

James was not pleased right now. Actually, hanging from a tree upside-down wasn't ever pleasant. Then again, James had only hung upside-down from a tree once before, this being his second time, so maybe he wasn't at a place to make an opinion like that. But, as it stood, James was not pleased.

Beside him, Scarlett was also hanging from the same tree. She didn't look like she was having a thrill either. Below him, ariados were all scuttering about, doing this or that, paying no mind to their food that they had caught. James didn't entirely know where they were. They were still in the forest, but what part, he didn't know.

James looked over to Scarlett. She gave James a look of 'how are we going to get out of this'?

"Hmm…let me think," James whispered. He tried to think of any way out of the strings. They were too hard to wiggle out of, and his arms were bound up, so he couldn't reach anything to help him. Then, something that seemed so simple popped into his mind, something so simple that James was amazed that he hadn't thought of it sooner.

"Can you burn through the string with your fire attacks?" James asked Scarlett. He felt a bit weird asking a pokémon that, one: wasn't his, and two: they were stealing, for help, but there wasn't any other way he could think of getting out of this predicament. Scarlett looked over to James, and then at up at the string constricting her.

"_Vulpix," _she said as she nodded. Scarlett made a small flame come from her mouth and started to slowly burn the string. After a little bit of of burning, Scarlett was able to get her bindings off. She grabbed the string that wasn't burned and used it to swing over to a tree branch that was near her. Scarlett precariously balanced herself on the branch and went over to where James's net was attached to the tree and started to burn it too. The ariados were completely unaware of the breakout that was happening above them.

It was too late that James realized he would fall to the ground when Scarlett was done burning the string. James was not quite as acrobatic as Scarlett and fell right onto the on the ground, face first. The tree wasn't that high up, and so it didn't hurt as much as it could have. There was still a bit of string on him, but the fire from Scarlett weakened it considerably, allowing James to break out of it himself.

Scarlett was able to swing to a branch with string, true, but she was actually not that coordinated. She lost her balance on the branch and came falling down, landing on James' back, which broke her fall. Of course, James didn't much appreciate it.

Not that he had much time to think about that, as the ariados were now closing in on the both of them. Scarlett got off of James as he stood up. He looked around him, and all the ariados were surrounding them.

"Looks like we're going to have to fight," James pointed out the obvious.

"_Vulpix," _Scarlett cried. She was clearly trying to be brave but was very afraid inside.

"Alright, let's go Victreebel!" James yelled as he threw Victreebel's pokéball. However, when it opened, nothing came out.

"Oh yeah…that's right," James said as he remembered that his pokémon weren't with him. James awkwardly went over and picked up the empty pokéball while all the spiders were staring at him. After he had done that, James walked back over to where Scarlett was, now equally scared as she was.

"Look, maybe you guys are overreacting," James tried to negotiate.

Without warning, one of the ariados jumped towards them. James put his hands up to his face to protect himself. Scarlett opened her mouth and sent out a Flamethrower, hitting the ariados and knocking it back onto the ground. The Flamethrower continued past the ariados a little and almost set a tree on fire. It didn't however, as it just missed a branch and continued on past the top of the trees.

James opened his eyes and saw that he was, in fact, okay, and that Scarlett had just hit an ariados with a Flamethrower. James just stared at the vulpix, who had now conquered her fear and was in a battle stance. He wondered why it would want to protect him.

The other ariados were not happy that their friend just got burned as they all got prepared to jump on them. This time, James was sure there was nothing he or Scarlett could do. All the ariados jumped at the two simultaneously. With nothing better to do, James just put his hands on his head and crouched down, preparing for the imminent attack.

"Wobbuffet, Counter!"

"_Wobbuffet!" _the blue blob jumped in front of both James and Scarlett, a red aura shrouding it. All the ariados stopped in mid air right in front of Wobbuffet, and then were sent flying back. James looked over to where Wobbuffet had come from, and the first thing he saw was a giant green and yellow pokémon swallow him whole.

"Yes, yes Victreebel, I'm glad to see you too, but now is not the time!" Once James was finally able to get his grass type off of him, he saw Jessie, Meowth, and Weezing also around him. Jessie reached down and picked up Scarlett, made sure she was alright, and then looked to James.

"Let's get out of here," she said.

"Right," James agreed. Before the ariados were able to recover from Wobbuffet's counter, the group of seven ran away from the spiders' nest and back to their balloon, which wasn't that far away. Meowth quickly started the engine and off they went, flying into the sky, away from all the ariados.

James was finally able to relax. He slid down the wall and sat on the ground. He was breathing heavy from everything that had just happened.

"Thanks for the save, Jess," James was able to get out between breaths.

"Don't kid yourself," Jessie replied back. "I didn't come to save you, I came to save little Scarlett here." Jessie nuzzled the small red fur ball. "Are you okay?"

"_Vulpix,_"

To this, James smiled. Yes, he didn't doubt that some, maybe even most, of the reason Jessie came to their rescue was because of Scarlett, but he didn't believe that to be the whole reason.

"How did you know where we were?" James asked.

"When we were look'n' over the tree tops, we saw this large stream of fire come out from the trees, and we knew it had to be Scarlett," Meowth explained.

"Makes sense," James said.

But there was still something on James' mind. The vulpix they had caught was acting very strange towards them. She wasn't acting like she was being kidnapped, but just on an adventure. This could be just because she was young, but James thought something else was up. She didn't run away from them when she could have, and now, she had helped James out of a tight spot.

James disregarded those thoughts as he relaxed. Indeed, he would follow them later, but for now, all he wanted to do was sit back and take it easy after what had happened. He eventually even fell asleep.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. I'd love your reviews, even if it's just "Cool Story Bro."**


	6. Road Blocked

**Whoa, hey guys, welcome to chapter 6. I hope you are liking my story so far. Then again, if you aren't, the chances that you are reading this are slim...so...anyway, I won't keep you any further. Enjoy.**

* * *

"So Scarlett ended up saving you, huh?" Meowth asked after James had finished his story.

"Yes, she did. Along with Wobbuffet, of course,"

"_Wobbuffet!" _

"_Vulpix!" _Scarlett said from the net she was in. Sure, she may have helped them, but they still didn't trust her entirely yet. This was finally their chance to get on the boss' good graces, and they weren't going to allow anything to mess it up.

"So, Jess, do you happen to know exactly where this depot station is?" James said, knowing that she probably didn't.

"Not exactly, no," Jessie confirmed James' suspicions. She was looking at a map that she had strone across the floor of the balloon. "But Buff said that it was just south of where we were, so if we keep heading in that direction, we shouldn't miss it."

Meowth thought about correcting Jessie again but decided it wasn't worth the effort it expended.

"You know, it's been awhile since we've brought our pokémon to a pokécenter for a simple check up. Do you think it's about time we do that?" James brought up a point.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt," Jessie agreed. "We've already made up all the time we lost from that ariados attack, so we can afford to stop for a little. There's a pokécenter just up ahead. We can stop there."

* * *

Jake had never really been in a human vehicle before. Well, unless you count that one time he was in the trunk of a car, but even if you did, that car wasn't a jeep like this one. The wind blowing on his face felt really nice. He took a moment to soak it all in.

"_So Lucy_," Jake started a conversation, "_When did you learn how to drive?" _

"The same time I learn how to speak human," Lucy answered from the driver's side. She had her main focus on the dirt path they were driving on.

"_And when was that?" _Jake asked.

"When I worked for another organization."

"_Which was…?" _Jake had no idea why Lucy was being so cryptic.

"None of your business," Lucy replied in a stern voice.

"_Sorry, didn't know it was a touchy subject_."

"Well, now you do."

Jake didn't know a lot about Lucy. Then again, he had only known her for about a month now. The first time he had met her was when she came to recruit him. Lucy was mysterious all right. No pokémon would learn how to talk human and how to drive just because they wanted to. There must have been another reason.

Jake looked up into the sky and saw the meowth shaped hot-air-balloon that they were following.

"_So, you're sure they can't see us?" _Jake looked back at Lucy.

"I think so, but even if they can, I don't think that they would be able to know that it's us."

Jake looked back at the balloon. "_Man, do they ever stop?" _They had been pursuing Team Rocket for only a little bit, but Jake was already getting bored.

Like it was destiny, Jake noticed that the balloon was starting to lose altitude.

"_Finally, they're stopping._" Jake expressed his boredom.

"But why would they be stopping here?" Lucy asked herself. Jake took a map out of the glove compartment of the area.

"_Well, there is a pokémon center near here._"Jake said while pointing on the map. "_Maybe their stopping to go there_?"

"Well if that's the case, then I have a plan," Lucy said with a grin.

"_And that is?" _

"We'll set an ambush against them.

"_Alright, just tell me what to do_."

* * *

Because they didn't want to raise suspicion, Meowth put the balloon down a little bit away from the pokémon center. Just in case, they decided to take Scarlett with them. They would have to hid her of course, as anyone who saw her while she was inside of a net would immediately get suspicious. James had been nominated by Jessie to carry her, and James didn't argue.

Jessie and James had also brought some disguises with them. Because they didn't want to be recognized by the nurse as Team Rocket, they always dressed up before they went in. However, because they had to hike a bit before they got to the pokémon center, they decided not to change into them just yet.

To get to the pokécenter, the trio had to cross a path that lead across a cliff face. James looked down the cliff and saw some trees far below him.

"It's a long way down," He said to himself.

"_Vulpix," _Scarlett agreed. James looked above them and saw some rocks that were precariously hanging above them. They could easily be knocked out of place with a little force. James let out an audible gulp.

"Meowth, why did you make us walk this way. Couldn't you have landed a little closer so we wouldn't have to cross this?" Jessie said. The road was pretty wide, but Jessie was being very careful to stay as far away from the edge as possible.

"Nope, 'dis was the closest I could get."

"You know, I wonder what the twerps are doing without us," James said to get his attention off of the cliff.

"Probably doing twerpish stuff, like they always do," Jessie replied, still very precarious of the cliff.

"How are we gonna find 'dem again once we deliver Scarlett to the boss?" Meowth asked.

"Simple, all we need to do is find the next gym, ask if the main twerp has been there or not, and if he has, go to the next gym and repeat. If he hasn't, we wait there for him." Jessie said, all the while keeping against the wall, as far away from the cliff as she could get.

"I guess the twerps are predictable like that," James commented.

Suddenly, two figures came out of a bush that was on the side of the road and stood in their path. One was most obviously an ampharos. The other one was a sneasl.

"Hey, it's the same ampharos from earlier," Meowth said once he recognised it.

"And now with a sneasl sidekick." James added.

"Why do you want this vulpix that badly?" Jessie spoke up, the cliff gone from her mind. "Go steal your own!"

The both of them stood there for a second. Then, the sneasel looked up at the trio.

"For the same reason you want it," she replied.

Jessie and James were at a loss.

"Did that sneasel-" Jessie stuttered.

"-just speak?" James finished.

"Why are you so surprised?" The sneasel asked. "You own a pokémon that can talk."

Out of the three of them, Meowth was the one that was the most speechless.

"You… can talk as well," Meowth was finally able to say. He had never met another pokémon that could take like he could. He had once thought that the pokémon in that one play were able to talk, but he later learn that they were all just voice by humans, which made him very depressed.

But this time, there was no mistaking it. That sneasel no doubt also talked.

"Of course I can talk human. Did you think that you were the only pokémon in the world that could speak human?" The sneasel said what Meowth had been thinking. She then held out one of her hands. "Now, I'd like that vulpix please."

"When miltank fly!" Jessie yelled, snapping out of her daze. She pulled a pokéball off of her belt and enlarged it. "If you want a fight, then you'll get one!"

"You think that just because you can talk means that you can boss us around?" James said, also taking a pokéball of his belt.

"Come on, Arbok! Let's teach these guys a lesson," Jessie called while throwing the pokéball.

"Show them what for, Victreebel!" James also called as he too threw his pokéball. Both Arbok and Victreebel came out of their balls, but Victreebel immediately turned around and tried to swallow its master. James, however, was prepared for it this time, and was able to move out of the way.

"Not me, Victreebel, show _them_ what for!" James cried out in desperation and pointed to the two pokémon on the other side of the road. Victreebel nodded and took its place next to Arbok.

"Alright then, you asked for it," the sneasel unsheathed her claws. "Can you get the arbok?" she asked her electric friend.

"_Prrro," _the ampharos said with a nod.

"Alright Arbok, start out with Bite!" Jessie took initiative. Arbok jumped towards the ampharos with its mouth open wide, its teeth glimmering in the light of the sun. The ampharos ducked under the snake and threw a Thunder Punch straight into its body.

"SSSABOK," it cried as it got electrocuted.

"Razor Leaf, Victreebel!" James commanded. Victreebel shot out razor sharp leaves at the sneasel. She waited until the last second, and then sliced them all in two.

"Wow, that's speedy," James commented.

"This isn't the time for complements," Jessie scolded. "Arbok, Poison Sting!"

Arbok sluggishly got up from the ground and shot poison darts from its mouth. Just then, the small, red orb on the ampharos' head started to glow. It glowed so brightly that Jessie, James, Meowth, and even the sneasel had to shield their eyes. They glanced back at the light just in time to see a large green beam come out of it and hit Arbok, sending it flying.

Flying off the cliff that is.

Jessie made a verbal exclamation before she pulled out a pokéball and pointed it over the edge at Arbok.

"Arbok, return," She said quickly and returned Arbok to its pokéball before it had hit the ground. Jessie looked back at the ampharos. "What move was that?"

"I think…it was ampharos' Signal Beam," James said, unsure.

"That's where you'd be right," the sneasel said. "Guess you do have something in those heads of yours.

Jessie growled at this comment. "Alright then, Wobbuffet, you're up." Jessie didn't need to release it from its ball, as it had been out this whole time.

"_Wobbuffet!"_ the psychic type said, excited that it finally got a chance to fight. It wobbled up to the plate with it's right hand in a salute position.

"I think it's time for a little Vine Whip, Victreebel," James kept up his attack. Victreebel sent out its vines at the two attackers. The sneasel dodged to the right and ran towards the grass type with claws outstretched.

"Do your thing, Wobbuffet!" Jessie called out.

"_Wobbuffet," _Wobbuffet obeyed and jumped in front of Victreebel. It started to have an almost radioactive orange glow around itself. The sneasel wasn't able to stop herself fast enough and rammed into Wobbuffet, who took the force of her attack and sent it back two fold. The sneasel was pushed backwards and landed on her back. Despite this, she jumped back up onto her feet very quickly.

"Victreebel, another Razor Leaf," James called out. Now that Jessie was using Wobbuffet, James knew that he was going to have to be on the offence while she was on the defence.

Victreebel sent more Razor Leaves in the sneasel's direction. She dodged to the side, avoiding, all of the leaves, and then went in for another attack.

The Razor Leaf, however, kept going and sliced right through some of the rocks that hung above the group. This caused the boulders to dislodge from the cliff and fall down to the people and pokémon below.

"Victreebel, return," James called when he saw that the giant rock was heading straight for them. Jessie also recalled Wobbuffet and the trio ran back to avoid being crushed. The ampharos and sneasel went the other way to also avoid being squashed.

Thankfully, everyone of them avoided the boulders. The ground below them, however, could not dodge the avalanche of rock, and so took the full force of the blow. It couldn't hold the weight of the rocks. And so, the cliffside crumbled down and took everyone that was on it with it, Team Rocket, the other two pokémon, and all.

"Team Rocket's falling off cliffs again!" The trio shouted as they fell to the depths below.

* * *

The boss was sitting at his chair like he always did.

_Lucy should have gotten the vulpix by now, _he thought. _She'll be back anytime now. _

Just then, the phone on the man's desk rang. He picked it up. "Yes, this is he," he answered. He listened to the person on the other end speak. "I see. Well, you know that those just don't grow on trees, right?"... "Wait," the man said before the person hung up. "I never said that I wouldn't be able to do it. In fact, you're in luck, because it seems that I might be able to get you one." … "I'll expect the money in full, of course." … "Alright, I'll call you once we have what you want. Good day," The man hung up and pushed a button on his ear piece.

"Lucy, there's been a change of plans."

* * *

Jessie and James were lucky enough to be caught by a few branches on their way down, so they didn't take the full force of the fall. Jessie had hit the ground while one of the branches had caught James shirt, so he was hanging in the air.

"What annoying twerps," Jessie complained, referring to the two pokémon who had fought them. She rubbed her back to help with the pain.

James started to look around frantically. "Wh-where's Scarlett?" he panicked. Jessie looked up and saw that the net no longer had a vulpix in it, but instead a large rip.

"James, what happened?" she started to panic too.

"I-I don't know. The net must have been ripped by the trees or something."

"We need to go and find her," Jessie said while jumping to her feet.

"Wait! Can you get me down first?"

Jessie gave out a sigh. "Arbok, get him down from there," Jessie gave the order while releasing Arbok. The snake came out and slithered over to where James was. Being the tallest poison type, Arbok was able to reach up and grab James by the shirt and put him safely on the ground.

"Thanks Arbok," James expressed his appreciation with a nod.

"Sssabok," Arbok said as it returned the nod. Jessie returned Arbok shortly after.

James looked around one more time and realized that they were not just one, but two pokémon short.

"Hey, where's Meowth?"

Jessie shrugged. "We'll have to look for him too." The two of them started to look around the area that they were, knowing that both of them couldn't have gotten too far away from them. Jessie was about to call out Scarlett's name before she heard the distinct cry of a vulpix.

"Did you hear that just now?" she asked.

"Sure did," James confirmed. "I think it came from over there," he pointed in the direction of the voice. The two ran over to where the howl had come from. There, lying on the ground, was Scarlett. It was unmistakable. Something, however, wasn't quite right; James could tell.

"_Vulpix," _she said weakly. Jessie ran over and picked her up. Once she did, Jessie noticed immediately what was wrong.

"Jessie, what's the matter?" James asked as he caught up to his friend.

"Look here," Jessie replied grimly while pointing to one of her sides. James saw a very large gash in Scarlett's side the was dripping blood.

"She must have gotten sliced by branches while she was falling," James concluded. Jessie was silent for a bit and thought of a plan.  
"James, take Scarlett to the pokécenter."

"What?"

"The nurse will be able to help her," Jessie explained. "Do you remember where the pokécenter is?"

"Indeed."

"Alright, then get to it," Jessie passed the vulpix onto James with urgency, but made sure that she didn't injure her any further.

"What about you?"

"I'll go and look for Meowth. I'm counting on you to get Scarlett to the pokécenter, got it?"

"Of course. I'm off," James parted and started running to the direction of the pokécenter. Jessie watched him until he was out of sight.

"Good luck," Jessie said quietly and then started the search for Meowth.

* * *

**I know that I'm not truly capturing the essence that is Team Rocket, but I'm trying the best I can. I know that some people find them annoying, but I just don't how. I can honestly say that I would not still be watching the anime (I'm on season 12 now,) if it wasn't for Team Rocket. Buy anyway, thanks for reading. **


	7. Separation

**Hello and welcome to chapter 7. I'm sorry that this wasn't out earier, but with the ending of my other story, the end of school drawing nigh, and a little side project I'm working on, I wasn't able to write this story much. But, here you go.**

* * *

"That didn't go quite to plan," Lucy stated while getting up off the ground.

"_Tell me about it_," Jake said while also pushing himself to his feet.

"You alright?" Lucy asked her electric parter.

"_I've been better_," Jake replied while scratching his head.

"Well that's good. At least we didn't get that hurt from the fall."

"Lucy," a voice came from her earpiece, "there's been a change of plans." Lucy put one of her claws onto the earpiece.

"And what's that?"

"We have another client. He wants a talking pokemon."

Lucy was stunned. He wasn't going to do what she thought he was, right? The boss wouldn't hand her over some random guy that wanted her. How could he do something like that?

She soon remembered, however, that Team Rocket's Meowth was also a talking pokemon. Lucy didn't know what she was thinking. Of course the boss wouldn't sell her. After all the time they've been together, he would never do that.

"So you want us to also catch that meowth?" Lucy guessed.

"If you could," he said politely. Even though he said it nicely, Lucy knew that was a command.

"Got it," Lucy confirmed and then took her claw off of the earpiece.

"_The Meowth, too? Don't you think that's too big of a job_?" Jake wondered.

"It's not like we have a choice. If we have a client who wants a talking pokemon, then we need to do it. It's not an option."

"_Or we could just turn you in_," Jake said as a joke. The look Lucy gave him told the ampharos that she didn't take it as one.

"What was that?"

"_Uh…nothing_," Jake said hastily.

"That's what I thought. Now, come on. We need to find Team Rocket again."

"_Right_," Jake agreed.

"Looking for me?" a voice came from behind the two. Lucy and Jake looked behind them and saw the exact pokemon they were looking for. He was standing there with his claws unsheathed.

"Looks like he came right to us," Lucy said with a smile. She, too, unsheathed her claws and got ready for a battle. Jake also took his place. He was charging up a thunderbolt before Lucy stopped him.

"I want to duel this meowth one on one," she said. Jake didn't know why she wanted to do this, but what he did know was that he should listen to Lucy. Jake took a few steps away from Lucy and prepared to watch the fight that was about to occur.

For the longest time, the two just stood there, looking at each other, neither one of them budging an inch. Both of them bore into the other's eyes, and looked deep within their soul. Both of them were like bulwark statues, not even breathing.

"_Um, I hate to interrupt,_" Jake interjected once this had been going on for about a minute, "_but I thought you were going to battle, not have a st-_" Jake cut himself off as he saw the two run at each other. _"Finally_," he whispered to himself.

Meowth started off and tried for a Scratch, but Lucy ducked under it and unleashed a Fury Swipes on the cat's stomach. After a few swipes, Meowth jumped backwards away from the sneasel.

"Oh yeah? Then get a taste of _my_ Fury Swipes," Meowth shouted. He closed the distance and then started to slash viciously with his claws. Lucy dodged each one of them, gracefully moving side to side like a dancer.

After Meowth had tired out from vainly attacking, Lucy went in for the finish. She let fly lots of punches and kicks and well as a head-butt or two now and then. She kept it up. Punch, kick, punch, kick, kick, punch, head-butt, until finally she nailed Meowth in the stomach and that sent him into a tree.

"_What move was that?" _Jaks asked himself. This was the first time he had seen Lucy fight, so he had no idea what that move was.

After Meowth had slid down the tree he was struggling to get back up. Once he was back on his feet, he prepared to use another Fury Swipes. He wasn't going to give up.

Just then, the three of them heard a very strange sound. It sounded like buzzing and was coming from the tree that Meowth had slammed into. They all looked at the tree to see bee-like pokemon with stingers on the end of their arms and the end of their abdomen. They were not happy that someone just rammed into their tree.

"_Beedrill!"_ Jake stated the obvious.

Lucy cursed under breath. "Run!" she ordered. Jake didn't argue and started to follow Lucy.

"Wait for me!" With adrenaline now rushing through his body, Meowth ran after them with the Beedrill not far behind.

* * *

"Meowth!" Jessie called out with her hands to her mouth. "Where are you, Meowth?"

"_Wobbuffet?" _

Jessie let out a sigh and put her hands down on her hips. "Where is that annoying cat?" Jessie said aggravated.

"_Wobbuffet!"_

Suddenly, Jessie felt something light hit her head. She looked up and saw that dark rain clouds covered the sky.

"Look like it's going to rain soon. Come on, let's find Meowth before we get caught up in this storm."

"_Wobbuffet_!"

* * *

Drops of rain splattered on James as he sprinted down the road. He could see the pokecenter up ahead and he was almost there. Thankfully, James had found another road that led to the pokecenter from the forest he had come from.

James looked down at Scarlett. Blood continued to seep through her wound and onto James gloves. The wound was very deep.

"_Vul-pix,"_ she said weakly.

"Just hang on; we're almost there."

James didn't even bother changing into his disguise. He immediately ran through the sliding door of the center.

The pokecenter looked pretty standard. There were a few benches and videophones around the lobby area and a desk near the back. Behind it was nurse Joy. At the time, she was focused on her computer, but she saw someone enter the pokecenter out of her peripheral vision.

"Hello and welcome to th-" she started to say. She stopped when she looked up and saw who was in front of her. He was a man with the Team Rocket logo on his shirt with a very injured vulpix that was bleeding everywhere.

"Look, I don't have time to explain, just help this vulpix please," the man asked her.

He said that he wouldn't explain, but Joy really wished he would. There were so many questions. Why was a Team Rocket agent in her pokecenter? Was he here to steal pokemon? Had he already stolen the vulpix in his hands. Did he hurt the vulpix?

Despite all these questions, there was something that Nurse Joy knew for sure. There was an severly injured pokemon in front of her that needed her help. Joy's confused expression turned to a serious one.

"Alright, hand it here," she instructed. The man handed the vulpix over to her. Joy's chansey had already gotten a stretcher once she had heard the commotion. Joy put the fire type on the stretcher and chansey pushed it into the emergency room.

"You wait out here," Joy ordered the man.

"Right."

Joy ran in after her chansey and closed the doors behind her. The red syringe icon above the door started to glow.

James went over and sat down on one of the benches now that he could finally catch his breath. He ran a hand through his hair.

"I need to get into better shape." James looked back at the emergency room. "Please be alright, Scarlett."

* * *

It had felt like they had been running for miles, when in reality it had only been about half of one. But, if you were being chased by a relentless pack of beedrill, you wouldn't be able to have an accurate representation of how long you've been running, either.

Up ahead of them, Lucy saw what looked to be light, a way out of the forest. She kept running until she broke through the trees. Once she was out, she found that she could not be more wrong.

Instead of a way out of the forest, what met her was a cliff. She looked down and saw that a river was flowing below them. Meowth and Jake had caught up to her and were now also looking down the long drop.

Lucy glanced behind her and saw that the beedrill were not stopping. They were closing in and there was no other way to go, so there was only one option. Lucy crossed her arms across her chest, closed her eyes, and, to her companions surprise, jumped off into the water below.

Jake followed Lucy's led and also jumped off, albeit not as graceful. Meowth was the last one to jump. He really didn't like water. But, upon weighing the choices of either getting stung by hundreds of beedrills or getting wet, Meowth chose the latter. After hesitating for a second, Meowth jumped off, just dodging a beedrill's stinger. Down into the water the cat fell, and he landed with a large splash. The current immediately started to sweep Meowth away. He tried to get up to breath, but the waves were too large and the kept pushing him below the water. He was only able to get gasps of breath.

Lucy and Jake weren't having a good time either. They were also being battered by the waves. Lucy was, however, able to swim to the shore. She got herself up and shook herself a bit to get herself dry. Not that it helped much, as it was now raining.

Jake was also able to combat the waves, and so he swam to the bank of the river as well.

Meowth, however, was not that good at swimming and couldn't swim to safety. So, Jake had to extent his tail for Meowth, who grabbed it. Jake pulled Meowth out of the river, dragging him in the sand. Meowth let go and got to his feet. He let out a shiver and then looked back where they had come from. No beedrill were coming after them.

"_Looks like they're gone_," Jake said.

"We can't rest now," Lucy commanded. "We need to find shelter from this downpour."

"What about that cave?" Meowth asked as he pointed to a nearby hole in the ground.

"Works for me," Lucy agreed.

"_I'm not complaining_."

So, the three ran into the cave in shelter of the rain.

* * *

Jessie did not have a convenient cave to jump into, so she had taken shelter under a rock outcropping. It wasn't the best, but it was all Jessie was able to find. The trees of the forest blocked some of the rain, but certainly not all of it.

"I bet James is at the pokecenter staying perfectly dry," Jessie said while gritting her teeth from the cold of being wet.

"_Wobbuffet_!"

She rubbed her arms up and down trying to keep warm. "But, then again, I also bet Meowth is being soaked." She started to look out through the rain. While she was looking, Jessie noticed something walking through the rain. Squinting her eyes, she could make out that it was a humanoid shape. Once the shape got closer, she could see the person clearly.

The shape was an old woman who had her back hunched over. In one of her hands was a cane and in the other was an umbrella. The rain was bouncing off the umbrella like frogs jumping out of water.

The woman approached Jessie and stopped.

"Now, what is a beautiful, young woman like yourself doing under that rock?" she asked loudly enough to be able to be heard over the rain.

"While I appreciate the compliment, grandma, if you haven't noticed, it's raining; and I don't like to get wet."

"_Wobbu-Wobbuffet!" _

"Well, I'm just now heading back to my cabin, would you like to come with me? It's very dry in there."

"You mean it?"

"Why, of course. It gets plenty lonely out here. I would love some company."

Jessie got out from under the rock and went under the old woman's umbrella. Since there wasn't enough room under the umbrella for Wobbuffet, Jessie returned it.

"It's not far from here. Only a small walk."

"Just lead the way."

* * *

Jessie later learned that her theory about James was true. He wasn't at all wet.

Inside the pokecenter, James sat, not really caring about anything. He twiddled his thumbs as he waited. James wasn't really in touch with the world around him. Even the trainer that came in to get her grimer healed didn't snap him out of his thoughts.

The trainer was very confused as to why a Team Rocket agent was sitting in the lobby of the pokecenter, but she didn't really give it a second thought.

The pitter-patter of the rain on the window was the only noise in the lobby.

"Scarlett, please be okay," James said to himself again.

Just then, the silence of the pokemon center was broken by loud sirens. James finally snapped out of his daze and looked out on of the windows. Out side were police motorcycles as well as one police car.

James was barely able to stand up before someone ran through the door.

"Hey you!" the Officer Jenny shouted while she pointed at James.

"M-me?" James stammered while pointing at himself.

"You're under arrest for being part of the criminal Team Rocket and for attempted pokemon theft."

"Wha-?" James was barely able to react before two other police were around him, handcuffing him.

The other trainer was now in the corner, watching the whole spectacle.

"But I d-" James started.

"Save it!" Jenny yelled. "My sister said that you fit the description of one of two pokemon thieves who tried to pull a heist a few days ago. Besides, being a part of Team Rocket is a crime anyway."

The two police officers had taken James' pokeballs off of his belt and were now shoving James outside and into the back of the police car. They slammed the door and started the car.

"Where are you talking me," James said in a panicked voice.

"To jail," Officer Jenny, who was driving, said.

James let out a sigh. "This isn't going to end well."

* * *

Jessie later learned that her theory about Meowth was also true. He was completely soaked.

Now in the cave, Meowth was finally out of the rain. He shook his fur off as did both Lucy and Jake.

"Man, what else could go wrong today?" Meowth said. Lucy ignored him as she looked out of the cave.

"This storm doesn't look like it's going to let up anytime soon," she observed. "It looks like we're going to be here awhile, maybe even for the night."

Meowth let out a large breath and then sat down. He finally was able to get some rest.

For the next fifteen minutes or so, no one said anything else. Everyone sat in quiet solitude, meditating on this and that. They all listened to the rain that was pouring in sheets outside the cave.

Lucy took out her earpiece and made sure that it was alright. It was. After all, it was waterproof for reasons like this.

"So, Jake," Lucy said while putting the earpiece back in, "I've been meaning to ask you something."

"_And what might that be?_"

"You can use the move thunderbolt when most other ampharos I've met can't. Why is it that you can use that move, but they couldn't?"

Jake thought about it for a second. "_I think I inherited it from my father_."

"Your father?"

"_Yeah. My father was a raichu, and he knew thunderbolt. I think that I got that move from him when I was born. It's a genetics thing." _

"Interesting." Lucy pondered what that meant.

"_Speaking about moves, what move did you use back there in your battle with the meowth?_"

"Oh, that? It's a move called Beat Up. The reason you've never seen it was because only sneasels can learn it." Lucy looked over to the other pokemon that was in the cave with them. "Hey you, meowth," she said to get his attention. Meowth snapped out of his daze.

"What do you want?"

"I was just wondering if you had a name other than Meowth, that's all."

"What's it to ya?"

"Nothing, just wanted to know."

Meowth let out a sigh. "Back when I lived as a street cat, I used to have a name, but when I joined Team Rocket, they just called me Meowth, so that's what I go by now."

"_Since we're in the question mood,_" Jake kept the conversation going, "_I was wondering when and why you joined the boss, Lucy. I know someone like you will have a story to tell._"

Lucy gave a very deep breath which wasn't really a sigh, just a 'reminiscing breath'.

"It was about a year ago that he found me. I had pretty much given up on life. There was no where I could go, nothing I could do. I had fainted in a small basin because I was very injured and too tired to go on. That's when the boss found me. He took me in and help me back to health. Because I could talk human, he gave me job as his translator, and we've been together ever since."

"_Never knew that about you_," Jake replied.

"Well, now you do," Lucy said in a voice that made it clear she did not want to dwindle on the subject. "So Meowth, where did you learn to talk?"

Meowth opened one of his eyes and looked at the sneasel, but then closed it.

"I'm not tell you."

"Alright then." Lucy knew what it was like for people to ask too many annoying questions, so she stopped talking to him. Lucy gave a large yawn. "It's getting late, and I'm going to get some Z's."

"_Good idea_," Jake agreed.

Meowth didn't really like this Lucy girl, but she was right about one thing. Meowth was really tired himself, and it was time to sleep. He layed down on the ground and tried to get some rest. The rain outside provided a nice, relaxing noise to fall asleep to.

* * *

While they were traveling to her house, Jessie learned that people called the old woman Grandma Ranch because she used to run a ranch in the country some time ago. But she decided to move to this quiet forest for some peace. She still ran a ranch at her house, which was just a little bit outside of the forest.

Once they had arrived at the ranch, Jessie saw all of the pokemon that Grandma Ranch had on her ranch. There was everything from mareep to marill. From eevee's to exeggcute. Currently, all but the water types were hiding under a small overhanging that was built to keep the pokemon dry when it was raining.

If Jessie had brought any equipment with her, she would have seriously debated trying to steal all, or just a lot, of the pokemon. But, Jessie had neither net nor cage to catch anyone in, and just running off with one of them wouldn't be very successful.

Once Grandma Ranch and Jessie were inside, Grandma Ranch put up her umbrella and went into the kitchen to make some tea.

"Would you like some, dear?" she asked.

"Tea would be nice." Jessie was surprised how hospitable this old lady was. But, she wasn't going to deny a gift. Wobbuffet he immediately let itself out of its pokeball again once Jessie had entered the house. She payed it no mind.

While Grandma was making the tea, Jessie sat at a table and stared out of a window at all the pokemon at the ranch.

"Wasted opportunity," she mumbled to herself with her hand on her cheek.

"_Wobbuffet_!"

"Please, drink as much tea as you like," Grandma Ranch snapped Jessie out of her thoughts.

"Don't mind if I do!"

"So, what was a woman like you doing inside this forest," Grandma Ranch said as she brought the tea and set it down at the table. Jessie took a cup and started to sip from it. She found it funny that this woman was not fazed at all by her Team Rocket uniform. Jessie decided that it wouldn't hurt to tell her the story.

"Well, see, we were traveling to get to the pokecenter nearby when we were…stopped. Long story short, we ended up breaking the cliff off and fell down into the forest here.

"Who is this 'we'?"

"My partners and I. We were separated from each other, and I was out trying to find one of them when it started to downpour, so I took cover under that rock. The rest you know.

"I see," Grandma Ranch said as she went over to the window and looked outside. "It's getting mighty late and it's still raining. How would you like to sleep here tonight. I have an extra bed. You can continue your search tomorrow. "

"I'd love that!" Jessie would take sleeping in a bed over camping any time.

For the next twenty minutes, Jessie talked about this and that while drinking her tea. A large yawn from Jessie signaled that it was time to get to bed. She thanked Grandma Ranch for her hospitality, something Jessie didn't do often, and fell into her bed, falling asleep instantly.

* * *

James watched as the rain slowly drifted down the window of the car, lost in thought. It didn't take long for them to get to the police station. Once they were there, Jenny took James out of the car and led him to a jail cell. She took of the handcuffs and threw James against the wall, slamming the door behind him and locking it.

"Your court case is tomorrow, so I suggest you get some sleep," Officer Jenny said with a stiff voice. She walked away, her heels clacking on the solid stone floor.

James put up both of his hands to his face and let out a sigh of depression.

Oddly enough, the fact that he was in the slammer wasn't the thing that was bothering James the most. It was the fact that he didn't know if Scarlett was okay or not. She could have died in the surgery, and James would never know.

It was strange, the fact that he had grown so close to a pokemon that he had stolen, even to the point of caring about its needs.

James stared out of the barred window in his cell, and the darkness that now crept upon it.

"Please be okay, Scarlett," he said for the third time that day.

* * *

**Things are starting to get real now. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can, but because of the side project I told you about, it might be away. What is the project? Well, just wait and see.**


	8. Memories, Good and Bad

**Hello and welcome to chapter 8 Sorry this wasn't out sooner, but now that it's Summer Break for me, I will hopefully be writing a lot more. My side project I was talking about will hopefully be uploaded by Saturday, at least, that's what I'm aiming for. Later today I will upload my next real story that will replace Through Their Eyes. Alright, enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Lucy was running for her life. She was so tired and sore, but she couldn't stop or she would most certainly die. She was weaving around rocks and trying to dodge the fire-breathing menace behind her.

Another Flamethrower came from behind her. Lucy didn't quite dodge it, and the searing heat hit her in her side. She yelled out of pain. Lucy kept running through the pain, pushing it to the back of her mind. Sneasels were fast, but the thing following Lucy was faster.

Finally, the large beast leaped over Lucy, cutting her off from going forward. Once more, it let out a Flamethrower, but Lucy was unable to dodge it this time. As the fire engulfed her, she felt pain she had never felt before as she screamed.

Lucy jolted awake and opened her eyes. She looked around as saw that she was inside of the cave she had fell asleep in. It was still dark outside of the cave, but it had stopped raining. Jake and Meowth were still asleep and had not woken up to her screaming, which was a good thing.

Lucy let out a sigh. It was that same nightmare that kept occurring. It happened over and over again, to the point that Lucy didn't like to go to sleep much anymore for fear of having it again.

Knowing that she couldn't go back to sleep, Lucy laid down and stared at the cave wall, waiting for the sun to rise.

* * *

Scarlett slowly opened her eyes. Once she was able to get over her grogginess, she looked around and saw that she was in a room in a Pokecenter. She tried to remember what had happened.

Scarlett looked over to her side and saw that it had been stitched up while she was out. The vulpix looked out of a window in that room and saw that it was still dark outside.

All at once she remembered what had happened. She had been severely injured and James had brought her here to be healed. James had saved her life.

Scarlett had to find him. She tried to get up, but a strong pain in her side caused her to fall back down.

"Oh, you're awake!" a voice came from the entrance of the room. Scarlett looked over to see Nurse Joy's chansey coming over to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Well, I guess. Hey, do you know where James went?"

"Who?"

"James, the human who brought me in here. He had lavender hair."

"Oh him, you don't have to worry about him anymore. Officer Jenny came around and arrested him."

"Arrested him?!"

"Yeah, he was arrested because he was part of the villainous Team Rocket, who steal Pokemon. I assumed that he had also stolen you."

"Well…he did," Scarlett replied. "But…I have to go find him, where is he?"

"He was taken to a jail not far to the west of here."

"Then I'm going to him," Scarlett said as she tried to get up a second time. She was able to and then jumped off the stretcher she was on. She immediately regretted that when a shockwave of pain went through her body. Scarlett let out a yelp.

"Oh no, you are much too weak to go anywhere. You need to rest," The chansey said as she picked up Scarlett and put her back on the stretcher.

"But I need to get to him."

"Why do you want to go see a bad person like him?"

"He saved my life, so he can't be bad. I need to repay him somehow."

"Well, bad or not, you need to rest. You don't want your wound reopening, do you?"

Scarlett let out sigh. "No, I guess I don't."  
"Good, now go and get some more rest. You need plenty of it when you are recovering."

"Alright," Scarlett laid back down and closed her eyes. The chansey smiled and left the room, shutting the door.

Once Scarlett was sure that the Chansey was gone, she got up and hopped off the stretcher again. Another wave of pain went through her body, but she was prepared for it this time. She let out a quiet grunt.

Scarlett looked around the room and saw that the window was open a crack. She scanned for anything that she could use to climb up on. She looked over to the stecher and saw that it had wheels on it. Scarlett went over and pushed the stretcher to the window. She jumped on top of it and then jumped out of the window.

They say you should look before you leap. Scarlett never really knew what that meant until now.

The window happened to be about 2 meters above the ground, so Scarlett fell out of the window and hit onto the ground. Pain ricocheted through her body again. Scarlett grited her teeth to deal with the pain. After it had subsided, Scarlett looked at her side and saw that she hadn't opened the wound, which was good.

She looked around and saw that she was outside. It was still dark, but the sun was about rise.

"I need to find James," Scarlett said and then headed off into the west to search.

* * *

Lucy looked through the darkness outside of the cave, waiting for the sun to come up. She let out a sigh when she remembered the nightmare she had.

"Why do you haunt me so?" she quietly wondered.

"_Lucy? You alright," _Lucy heard Jake's voice behind her.

"Yeah, just fine," she answered.

"_Why are you up this early?"_ he asked while he went and sat next to the sneasel.

"I couldn't sleep."

"_I see…"_ Jake looked over to Meowth was sleeping. "_Hey, Lucy?_"

"Hm?"

"_I was wondering if you know that Meowth."_

"What gave you that thought?"

"_Well, you were quick to battle him one on one, and the way you reacted when I first told you about him was strange as well._"

Lucy listened to Jake as she looked over to Meowth. "I did know him, yes, though I doubt he remembers me. It was back when I couldn't talk human and I just went by Sneasel; I didn't have a name," Lucy looked out side of the cave. The sun was now slowly rising. "We better get moving. We'll let Meowth lead us to his friends, and then we can capture that vulpix."

"_Right._"

* * *

Jessie woke up of her own accord. It was nice to be able to sleep in a bed after all those days camping out. Grandma Ranch had heated up some water for a bath because she didn't have plumbing, so Jessie was also able to take a nice bath, a lot better than the ones in rivers that she usually took .

After her bath and changing into another Team Rocket outfit she always carried around, she went downstairs to see Grandma Ranch cooking breakfast. She was making eggs and toast, which she offered to Jessie. She gladly accepted.

The sun was just rising over the horizon. Jessie looked at the sunrise while contemplating what her teammates were doing. She was wondering if Scarlett was okay or not.

After breakfast, Jessie thought about Meowth. She was having a good time here at the ranch, so why did she need to leave to go find that furball? He could take care of himself and get back to the Pokecenter just fine. Jessie would stay here a bit before she went there herself, and they would be on their way back to the boss.

Just then, a very loud roar broke through the forest, shaking the house and even causing Jessie to fall out of her chair. After a few seconds the roar stopped. Grandma Ranch didn't look fazed in the slightest.

"Oh, that Entei, always making a ruckus."

"Wait…" Jessie staggered while getting up from the floor, "Entei?"

"Oh yes, there is an Entei that lives in this forest. Don't worry though; he's so sweet and doesn't hurt humans."

"Humans?"

"Yes, but he's ruthless to Pokemon who wander into his territory but don't live there. You're safe, though, because you're not a Pokemon."

Jessie started to realize what this meant. "Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" she yelled and ran out of the house before Grandma Ranch could say anything. She wondered what was the problem.

Jessie needed to find Meowth before that Entei did and before he became the fire type's next meal.

* * *

Scarlett walked down the dirt path that she hoped led to the Police Station that held James. After a bit of walking, however, she came to a fork in the road.

"Which way?" she asked herself. While looking around, she saw a pink Pokemon laying down near the split in the road. She decided to ask him if he knew which way it was. Once Scarlett got closer, she recognized the Pokemon as a slowpoke. He was looking out into the distance, paying no attention to anything around him.

"Excuse me, sir, but could you tell me where the Police Station is?" she asked.

"Police…" the slowpoke stopped talking.

"Yes, the Police Station, do you know where it is?"

"Station…"

"Indeed, that's what I'm looking for, by chance do you know where it is?"

"Left…" he replied absentmindedly.

"Thank you…um… your left or mine?"

"Mine…"

"So it's your left?"

"Your…"

"My left?"

"Left…"

Scarlett let out a sigh, this was getting nowhere. She would ask someone else. Scarlett was about to leave when she heard the slowpoke say, "Way…". She turned around and saw that the slowpoke was pointing to his right.

"So it was my left," Scarlett said it confirm.

"Left…"

"Alright, thanks," Scarlett started to walk in the direction he had pointed, hoping it was right.

* * *

Meowth, Lucy, and Jake traveled through the forest looking for any berries that they could eat for breakfast. After a little bit of searching, the three found a bush that was loaded with Oran berries. Each of them took two to eat on the road.

After Lucy had ate one of hers, she looked at the other one. Holding a Oran berry while walking through a place with trees, it reminded her of a time long ago…

* * *

"Yo, Sneasel, you alright?" a voice said when she had tripped over a root that had jutted out from a tree and into the path.

"_Ow…_" Sneasel moaned as she rubbed her elbow. She looked at it and saw that she had skinned it on the ground. A paw reached out to help her and she took it. Sneasel was lifted up off the ground. "_Thanks, Meowth,_"

"Don't mention it," Meowth shrugged it off. "'Dis road can be trechus, so you gotta watch your step."

"_Alright, I'll do that."_

After a little bit more walking in silence, Meowth broke it by asking a question.

"So Sneasel, how do you like it here?"

"_What?"_

"How do you like your new home here?"

"_Oh, well, it's a lot better than where I came from._"

"'Dat's good to hear. Where did you come from?"

"_I…don't want to talk about it._"

"That bad, huh? It can't be worse than growing up on the street like I did."

"_I still don't want to talk about it_."

"That's fine. I don't want to pry. Hey, you hungry?"

"_Yeah, a bit."_

"I know of a berry bush around here that we can get some Oran berries from."

"_That sound delicious." _

"Alright then, follow me."

Meowth led the way through the mountain road over to where a single bush was. It was covered with Oran berries.

"Take as many as you want. They grow back really quickly," Meowth told Sneasel.

"_Alright, thanks."_ Sneasel took two of them and so did Meowth. They started back on the trail while they ate their berries.

"_These are delicious," _Sneasel confirmed.

"Aren't they? Oran berries are my favorite."

"_So, where is this place that you're taking me?"_

"It's not much farther, just a few more minutes."

The two walked a bit more while they finished up their berries. Finally, they arrived at their destination.

"Here it is," Meowth said triumphantly. They had arrived at a lake with a large waterfall flowing down into it. The way that the sun reflected off of the water was dazzling.

"_Wow, that waterfall is amazing. How were you able to find this place?"_

"By accident while I was lost once," Meowth said while scratching the back of his head. Sneasel continued to marvel at the wonderful sight. She went and sat down at the edge of the lake.

"_This is beautiful," _she continued to admire.

"I always come here to cool down or when I need a break," Meowth said as he took a seat by Sneasel.

"_You were right," _she said and turned to Meowth, _"this is a place I'd like to see_."

"I knew it would be," Meowth said with a smile. "Well, I need to go do my job," he continued, "but you stay here as long as you like."

"_I will, thanks." _

"No problem."

And with that, Meowth left.

"_That is so beautiful," _Sneasel said with a smile.

* * *

Lucy would never forget that time. She popped the last berry in her mouth and started to chew it.

Meowth knew that he had to lose these losers. He wasn't born yesterday, and he knew they just wanted him to lead them to Scarlett. He needed to get away from them somehow.

Just then, a loud roar covered the entire forest. Meowth, Lucy, and Jake covered their ears from the sound. Soon, it was over, and everyone lifted their paws off of their ears.

"_What was that_?" Jake asked.

"If I told you that I knew, I'd be lying," Meowth replied.

"Well, it can't be anything good, so let's get out of this forest as fast as we can," Lucy suggested.

"Right," Both Meowth and Jake said in unison.

They weren't able to take two more steps before another roar sliced the quiet forest. The three covered their ears again, but found that even that was not enough to keep the sound out.

"_Whoever's making that roar is really close_," Jake observed once the roar had died down.

They say that if you speak of the Devil, then he will come. The thing making the roar wasn't the Devil, but it might as well have been.

Up on a ledge, a large, brown and red Pokemon stood, staring down at the three Pokemon who were substantially smaller.

"_Is that what I think it is?_" Jake said in disbelief.

"If you think it's an Entei, then yes, it is!" Meowth said in a panic. An Entei? In this forest? Why was it here?

Lucy didn't say anything, but just looked up at the beast of fire with eyes wide open.

"No! Why…why are you here?!" she shouted

* * *

Scarlett eventually made her way to the city where, indeed, the Police Station was. She could see it. The slowpoke, being as cryptic as he was, ended up being right. Slowly, she approached it. Somehow, Scarlett needed to sneak inside and find James. Looking inside the building, the vulpix saw Officer Jenny sitting at her desk. She was looking at papers and typing something in on her computer.

_How am I going to get around her?_ Scarlett thought.

Jenny's phone that was also on the desk started to ring and she answered it.

"Police, what's the problem," she said. "What? That's terrible. Alright, I'll come right away." Jenny hung up the phone and ran outside. Scarlett hid in a bush as she ran by. Jenny hopped on her motorcycle and drove away.

"Well, that deals with that," Scarlett said as she walked into the station.

James had woken up hours ago, but he had nothing to do but sit in his cell and wait until his trial.

He heard Jenny's footsteps on the ground and knew that his time had come. He breathed a heavy sigh and got up from where he was lying.

But something was off. The footsteps didn't sound right. Mabe Officer Jenny wasn't wearing her heels?

A small vulpix head poked out from the corner into James cell.

"_Vulpix!"_

"S-Scarlett?" James couldn't believe it. He ran over to the bars. "What are you doing here?"

"_Vulpix!" _she cried. She then started to blow a flame on the lock that held the doors to James' cell closed. He stepped back so he wouldn't be burned. After a little flame work, the lock melted and fell off the door. James opened the door and walked out.

"Thank you, Scarlett, I am truly grateful."

"_Vulpix!"_

"We need to get back to the Pokecenter. Jessie and Meowth are probably waiting for us there."

* * *

"_Lucy, what's wrong?_" Jake asked to his paralyzed partner.

"I…no…not him," she stuttered out.

"_Him? Lucy, you're not making any sense. Do you know who this Entei is?"_

Lucy looked right into Jake's eyes.

"He's my worst nightmare."

* * *

**Thanks for everyone who reviews, I do read them, but I don't reply much because it would mostly just be, "Thanks for reviewing." **


	9. Entei at Your Own Risk

**Hey guys and welcome to chapter 9. Sorry for this late update, but I hope it will be worth it. I don't have much to say, so start reading.**

* * *

The entei shot out a stream of fire on the three Pokemon. Meowth was the first to react and jumped behind a rock, out of the way of the fire. Jake was about to run to the rock as well before he saw that Lucy wasn't moving. He quickly grabbed her arm and yanked her behind the rock, just avoiding the fire.

"_Lucy, what's wrong?" _Jake asked franticly. Lucy didn't answer, but just sat behind the rock and shivered.

"Not him. Why is it him?" she asked herself.

It was obvious that this entei had done something to Lucy in the past, but Jake had no idea why she was freaking out in this manner. Jake decided to do something drastic. He went out from behind the rock.

"_I don't know who you are and why you're attacking us, but I'm not okay with it, so take this!"_ he shouted as he let lose a Thunderbolt at the beast. The entei leaped out of the way and the Thunderbolt smashed into the ground, missing entei completely.

The entei jumped over Jake, and landed right behind him. The rock now no longer protected Meowth and Lucy from the beast of fire. The entei prepared another Flamethrower, and shot it right at Meowth and Lucy. Meowth braced himself for the fire while Lucy just stared at it, reliving her worst nightmare.

The Flamethrower, however, never reached them as it was blocked by a Poison Sting. The two attacks collided and created a small explosion. After the smoke of the attack had cleared, the entei looked over to where it had come from and let out a loud roar, showing that it was not happy someone just stopped its attack.

"Prepare for trouble, you don't scare me," Jessie said as she jumped down from the ledge the entei had been on to the ground, her Arbok and Wobbuffet right behind her.

"Jessie?" Meowth said out of amazement. He then ran over and took his spot next to Jessie. "Make it double, she saved me from a third degree."

"To protect the world from devastation!" Jessie started to motto.

"To unite all peoples within our nation," Meowth took James' spot.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"Meowth!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"_Wobbuffet!"_

The entei let out another loud roar, to which everyone covered their ears from.

"What a loud mouth. Arbok, make him shut it with your wrap attack!" Jessie commanded.

Arbok jumped forward and wrapped its long body all around entei, including his mouth. The entei tensed its muscles and easily shook Arbok off, throwing it to the side. It then launched another Flamethrower in Jessie's direction. Meowth quickly dived out of the way while Jessie ducked, causing the fire to go right over her. After the Flamethrower had gone, Jessie got back up to her feet.

"Arbok, Poison Sting, hit it!"

Arbok got up from the ground and shot poison darts out of its mouth. The entei dodged them with ease, but was distracted by them, which caused him to be hit by the Thunderbolt that came from Jake. The entei quickly shook it off and ran up to Jake at a speed that was surprising for a creature as large as it was. The entei lifted up a foot and stomped Jake, causing him to hit the ground. After the entei got off of Jake, he shakily got up. The Stomp had obviously taken its toll.

"Arbok, Dig!" Jessie ordered. Arbok quickly dug a hole and went underground.

The entei looked around and tried to feel where Arbok would come up, but while it was searching, it saw a Pokemon that he hadn't payed much mind to before.

Lucy was still cowering in front of the rock, not daring to move.

"This isn't happening. This can't be happening," she kept repeating to herself. The entei took notice of her.

In his mouth, the entei charged up a ball of fire and came out as a Fire Blast. It headed right towards Lucy.

"_Lucy!" _Jake yelled in order to warn her. It didn't matter, however, because she was shutting the outside world out.

Arbok, sadly, was just a little too late to stop the attack and hit the entei from underground just after it had fired the attack.

"This is just a dream. Just that same nightmare," she told herself. But even she knew that it wasn't true. This was real life, and she was about to be roasted alive by the Fire Blast.

The power of the Fire Blast hit her in full. Lucy screamed in agony as the fire burned her icy flesh.

"_Lucy!" _Jake yelled.

All Meowth did was watch. He felt bad for her, too. Even though she was his enemy, no one deserved being burned alive.

After the attack had finally finished, Lucy was still standing. Part of her flesh was burnt and she had burns all over her body.

After a few more seconds, she fell down onto the ground, having been knocked out from all the pain.

The entei gathered Fire in his mouth and prepared to use a Flamethrower to finish her off.

"_Stop!" _Jake yelled and jumped in front of Lucy. He let loose another thunderbolt to counter the fire attack. Both attacks collided and created a small explosion.

Meowth ran up to check on Lucy. Yup, she was out cold.

Jessie took this as a chance to get in another attack. She ran up next to Jake.

"Arbok, Poison Sting, one more time!"

Arbok slithered over to Jessie and let fly more poison stingers. To their surprise, the entei didn't try and dodge it, but instead ran right into them. Each one of the needles hit the entei, but they didn't seem to affect him too much.

The entei kept charging towards the group with his head down. None of them were able to react in time and all six of them were hit with the force of the Head-Butt, sending them flying into the air.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!"

"_Wobbuffet!"_

After they had landed, Jessie got up slowly.

"What's with that guy?" She asked, angrily.

Meowth noticed that they had flown out of the forest. He stood up and he figured out where they were.

"Hey, 'dat entei launched as near the Pokecenter. See, 'dere it is!" he said while pointing to it.

"I want to go back and teach that entei a lesson, but James is probably there waiting for us. Come on." Jessie returned both of her Pokemon and started to walk towards the building with Meowth.

Jake looked down at Lucy and saw that even flying through the sky and landing hadn't woken her up. She needed medical attention, and Jake knew this. He slowly picked her up, hoping that she wouldn't weigh a lot. She didn't weigh to much, so Jake ran ahead of Team Rocket to the Pokemon center.

James and Scarlett had just arrived to the Pokemon center themselves. James had grabbed his Pokeballs from the place the police had stashed them and then they left.

The two of them were surprised that Jessie and Meowth weren't there yet. James started to worry. They should be here by now.

Because James didn't want Scarlett's wound reopening, he had decided to carry her back to the Pokecenter. Thankfully, she was very light and wasn't that much of a burden.

"_Vulpix,"_ Scarlett said while looking up at James.

"I don't where they are either," James guessed what she had said. He looked across the horizon and didn't see anything. Looking a little closer, however, revealed that someone was coming towards him in the distance. James squinted his eyes in order to see who it was.

"You again!" James shouted when he recognized who it was. He unclipped a Pokeball off of his belt with his free arm that wasn't carrying Scarlett. "Listen here you! You're not getting this vulpix and that's fi-" James stopped when he saw that the ampharos had something in its hands. No, not a something, a someone.

James stopped and just watched the electric type run past him, with the sneasel in its hands, and into the Pokecenter. James was a bit confused by this. He looked back and saw Jessie and Meowth walking to the Pokecenter a slower pace than the ampharos.

"Jessie! Meowth!" he called out and ran up to them.

"Is Scarlett okay?" Jessie asked.

"Yes, she is. The nurse patched her up."

"_Vulpix!"_ Scarlett said in a cheerful tone of voice.

"So, what was up with that ampharos and that sneasel?" James asked.

"Well, while you were staying warm and comfortable in the Pokecenter, we were attacked by an entei." Jessie said.

"An entei?!"

"Yes. The sneasel had a mental breakdown and was hit by a Fire Blast from it."

"So just be glad you were in the Pokecenter without any danger," Meowth added.

"Well…not exactly…" James said.

"_Vulpix…" _

"What do you mean by that?" Jessie asked. "On second thought, let's talk about it in the balloon. I don't want to be wasting time talking here."

"The balloon?" James wondered why she wanted to do it there.

"Did you forget that our number one priority is bringing Scarlett to the boss?" Meowth questioned.

"Thats right…" James said, indeed having forgotten that. Looking down at Scarlett, James realized that he had totally forgotten that she wasn't his Pokemon. He almost didn't want to leave her.

Then again, she was their ticket to promotions and wealth and success. That's what he wanted, right?

"Come on James," Jessie snapped James out of his thoughts. Jessie and Meowth were already ahead of him. James ran to catch up with them.

"So, how are we going to get back to our balloon with the road out of commission?"

"There's got to be another road leading back there," Jessie answered, "We just need to find it."

So the four of them went off in search of another route.

"Come on, Sneasel! I didn't even hit you 'dat hard," Meowth yelled. "Get up!"

Sneasel struggled to get to her feet. She slowly pushed herself up and let out a sigh.

"_I don't think I'm cut out for fighting_," she said.

"Oh come on. Don't say that," Meowth encouraged as he came over to where Sneasel was. "Battling is hard to master. You just have to keep trying. If I stopped trying every time I failed, then I wouldn't be here today."

"_Yeah, but that's you. I'm just no good at it, no matter how hard I try."_

"Battling is something that takes a lot of time to get good at. It's not like any sport. Here, try your scratch attack on me again." Meowth said and backed up.

"_Alight," _Sneasel took a deep breath. She focused her attack and aimed for Meowth's stomach with her claws. Meowth easily sidestepped it, causing Sneasel to lose her balance and fall over. She let out another sigh.

"_See, I'm just not made for battle_."

"Actually, I'd say you're getting better."

"_Really?"_ Sneasel was helped up to her feet by Meowth.

"Yeah, I remember when I first started to train you, you were terrible. You weren't even able to use any attack effectively."

"_I guess your right._"

Meowth looked up at a clock on the large tower.

"Well, I've got a meeting to attend to, so I gotta go, but you keep practicing. I know you'll get better."

"_Right_."

With that Meowth started to walk away.

"_Hey, Meowth," _Sneasel called after him.

"Yeah?" Meowth looked back at her.

Sneasel stuttered a bit and looked at the ground. She eventually got out, "_Thanks…_"

"No problem," Meowth said with a grin. He turned his head back around and continued his walk.

Sneasel watched him go away with a smile. After he was gone, Sneasel started to practice her scratch again. She was going to master it, if not for herself, then for Meowth.

Lucy slowly opened her eyes. A very bright light blinded her. She tried to put up her hand to cover her face from the light. The moment she moved her arm, it flamed up in pain. Lucy let out a grunt.

"_Hey, careful now. Take it easy,_" a voice that Lucy recognized came from her right.

"Jake?" she said while turning her head slowly. She had been laying down, so turning her head without turning her whole body was a bit difficult.

"_Don't push yourself. You were almost burned alive after all,_" he said. "_I'm glad you're finally awake._"

"Where…am I?"

"_In a Pokecenter. You blacked out after you were hit by that Fire Blast. After that, the entei sent all of us flying. Then I took you to this Pokecenter."_

"The entei…" Lucy trailed off.

"Are you feeling well_? You were hit pretty badly."_

Lucy let out a sigh. "I've had better days."

"_Alright, well, I'll leave you be. Do you want me to call the boss to tell him that we can't continue?" _

"No, I will. You can't even talk to him, remember?"

"_Guess you're right,_" Jake got up to his feet and headed for the door. "_Get better soon, Lucy._"

"I'll try," she replied weakly.

Once Jake was out of the room, Lucy let out another deep sigh.

"Entei, why do you haunt me so?"

Jake left Lucy's room and went back into the lobby. The nurse was still at her desk. When Jake had walked into the center with Lucy, the nurse had been very surprised to see that an ampharos was carrying an injured sneasel, but she helped Lucy out all the same.

Jake went over to a bench that was in the lobby and thought about what this meant for the mission. Clearly, Lucy couldn't continue until she was better. The boss most likely still wanted Meowth and the vulpix, so it was possible that Jake would go after them alone.

Jake thought about why Lucy was so afraid of that entei. It was a side of her that Jake had never seen. She was paralyzed with fear, not able to move, even when a fire attack was coming right at her.

"Jake, do you copy?" the boss's voice came over Jake's earpiece.

"_Yeah, I'm here_," he answered.

"Lucy just told me that she will be out of commission for some time. I would like you to keep her in good company."

Jake was surprised by this order. It wasn't what he was expecting.

"_Alright, but what about the vulpix and Meowth?" _

"If you're worried about the vulpix and the meowth, don't be. I'm going to go after them myself."

"_Gotcha_,"

"That's all for now."

Jake took his hand of the earpiece and breathed a sigh of relief. Looks like he wouldn't be doing anything after all.

The boss clicked a button on his desk and a microphone came out of his desk.

"Alert. I will be leaving on my ship in exactly twenty minutes to go on a mission. Anyone else that would like to join me are welcome."

With that, the boss got out of his chair and walked out of his room and down the hallway.

Everyone everywhere was scurrying around, some moving boxes, some putting on their uniforms, and others just going to board the airship so they wouldn't miss it."

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what is this mission we are going on?" the man with the beanie from a few days ago asked. It wasn't official, but the man was pretty much the boss's second in command. He would always go to him when he needed advice and the boss wasn't annoyed by his questions he asked him.

"We have two clients paying a lot of money for two Pokemon that even my best Pokemon agent couldn't capture."

"Lucy, sir?"

"Yes, even her. I don't want you going, however. I need someone to stay here and keep everyone who isn't going in check."

"Understood, sir," the man said with a salute and parted ways with the boss.

After a little more walking through the base and the boss made it to the garage where his large airship was. The ship was pretty massive, almost as big as a three story building. Then again, it had to contain its own barracks as well a cafeteria, so it pretty much had to be a building. It was powered by four large rockets on the ends of it.

At the door was a grunt counting everyone who went inside. He saluted when the boss approached, which was met with a tip of the boss's hat.

The boss walked through the ship until he got to the pilot's quarters. He didn't fly the thing, of course. Some grunt that was trained did. After a few more preparations, the ship was ready to launch. The rockets turned on and the roof the the garage opened. The ship flew out of the base and then went towards where their radar had told them Team Rocket had gone.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. I would like it if you gave a review about if you like the story and why as well as what you think is going to happen.**


	10. Food for Thought and the Big Cheese

**Hello and welcome to chapter 10. I hope you're liking the story. Anyway, onto the reading.**

* * *

After flying for a few good hours, Jessie finally gave in to James' complaining and decided to stop and eat. She herself was very hungry, although she'd never admit it. This time, however, they decided to stop and eat at a restaurant instead of eat their own food. They had the money, and they felt like eating something nice. After all, even villains needed a good meal once and a while. Team Rocket landed and put on their disguises early this time to avoid any more complications with the law.

The disguises weren't much, but they were enough to fool people, or at least, enough to not be recognized as Team Rocket. James, aside from a T-shirt and some jeans, had on a pair of glasses and a baseball cap. Jessie had on a long flowy dress and her hair was in a braid. James always thought that Jessie went over the top with her disguises, but then again, that was Jessie for you. Meowth didn't have on a disguise. As long as no one caught him talking, he didn't need one.

Scarlett was still very injured, so James had to carry her in his arms the whole balloon ride. They couldn't leave her alone, so they agreed to take her with them to the restaurant.

The cafe was an outdoor one. Metal chairs and tables were scattered around the entrance to the restaurant, most of them being empty. In fact, there were only three other people eating there. Team Rocket sat down at a table and a waiter gave them menus.

"Should we also get Scarlett some Pokemon food with the others?" James asked while looking over the menu.

"Well, she's saved you twice now, so maybe it's only fair," Meowth made a point.

"Now hang on," Jessie interjected, "remember that we don't have unlimited money. We can't just throw it around."

"But Scarlett has saved me twice, as Meowth said. Also, we don't want her to be starving, right?"

Jessie let out a low growl. "Fine," she said shortly, "but nothing too expensive."

"_Vulpix!_" Scarlett said with a smile.

The waiter came back and they all ordered their food as well as three soda bottles for drinks. They also ordered Pokemon food for their Pokemon, including Scarlett.

"So, Meowth, when I found you in the forest, you were with those other two Pokemon. Why were you following them?"  
"They were the ones that were following me! I bet they wanted me to led them to Scarlett, and then capture us both."

"They wanted to capture you, too?" James was surprised.

"Yeah, I overheard them getting an order from their boss to also capture me."

"Why would they want you?" James asked.

Meowth shrugged. "Beats me."

"Well, that's just great. That means they'll be double targeting us," Jessie said in a less than enthusiastic voice.

"But I don't think that sneasel will be going anywhere in the condition I saw her in," James brought up a point.

"True, but remember that they were getting orders from someone higher up. If we are still a target to them, they'll sent someone else after us," Meowth brought up a better point.

"More reason to get to the depot as fast as we can then."

The waiter brought in the sodas and Meowth opened up all of the bottlecaps with his claws. Jessie took her bottle cap and threw in a trash can that was nearby. It was saved from going into the trash by James, who grabbed it at the last second. He looked at the bottom of it with his eyes wide open.

"Jessie! You almost threw away a yellow star bottle cap!" he cried out.

"Is that supposed to be rare?" Jessie asked with no interest whatsoever.

"These aren't extremely rare, no, but they are hard to come by. People will pay a lot of money for one of these."

"Well good, if we find on of those people, we can sell it and get some mo-"

"Nonsense!" James interrupted. "I've been looking for one of these for a year now, and I'm not about to give it away for some cash." James looked back at it. "And to think you almost threw it away."

"A whole year? That's impressive," Jessie commented.

"Hey Jimmy, what about 'dis one?" Meowth said as he handed his over to James. He took a good look at it, and afterwards gave it back to Meowth.

"That's a blue two," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "See how on the bottom it has two blue dots?"

"Yeah, so how rare is this one?"

"One of the most common, actually. See, I got one too," James held his up to show Meowth.

"So it isn't worth saving is what you're saying." Meowth took his and chucked it behind him into the trash can. James once again dove for it and caught it right before it went in.

"I never said that!" He exclaimed while getting back into his chair. "They may be common, but if you add a lot of them up, they can be worth a lot more than any one rare bottle cap."

"Let me guess, you're not going to sell those either, are you?" Jessie questioned in a tired tone of voice.

"Of course not! Why would I do that?"

Jessie put her hand over her face. She would never understand that man as long as she lived. James put all three bottle caps inside his pocket right as their food came. Jessie and James released their Pokemon and they started to eat the Pokemon food that had been laid out for them.

"Meowth, did you happen to know that sneasel who could talk?" James asked while taking a bite out of his sandwich. Meowth swallowed his food before talking.

"She looked kinda familiar, but I think I would have remembered if I ever met another talking Pokemon, you know."

"True. I wonder why she learned to talk."

"What do you mean by that?" Jessie asked with her mouth full.

"Think about it." James said while taking another swig from his soda. "For a Pokemon to learn how to talk, they have to go though a very hard process that's apparently way harder than for any of us to learn a new language."

"Why is that?"

"It's because they have to learn a new way to talk, with new speech patterns, not just a new language. For example, imagine that the only word you've said your entire life is 'Jessie'. It would be really hard for you to say any other word because you've been trained to only say that one word."

"Where did you learn all of 'dis?" Meowth questioned.

"I read it in a book about why Pokemon don't talk."

"Well, they pretty much have it spot on."

"So what you're saying is that there must have been a reason that the sneasel would have wanted to learn how to talk?" Jessie guessed.

"I think so. Meowth did it for love, so I wonder if it's the same for that sneasel."

After they were all done eating, the waiter came back with the bill and they paid it with what little money they had left. Jessie sat up from her chair and stretched. "Well, that was a nice lunch, but we have more flying to do, so we should get to it." James and Meowth agreed. Jessie and James returned their Pokemon and James picked up Scarlett again. The three of them started off back to their balloon.

Once they got there, Jessie and James took off their disguises and put back on their Team Rocket uniforms. Before they were going set off, Meowth got a skeptical look on his face.

"What's the matter, Meowth?" James inquired.

"Do you guys here 'dat?" Meowth asked his companions.

"Hear what?" Jessie asked, not having heard anything.

"Listen, it kinda sounds like…engines. Like rockets," Meowth said while focusing in on the sound. James cupped his ear in an attempt to hear what Meowth was talking about.

"You know, I think I do hear something." It was low and hard to pick up, but it was certainly there.

"Alright, so where do you think the sound is coming from?" Jessie asked, now also hearing the sound.

"_Wobbuffet!_" Wobbuffet had let itself out again, which was no surprise to anyone. The noise was getting steadily louder. Soon, it became so loud that it seemed to echo around the grassy plain they were in. The three looked up to the sky to see a huge, sleek, airship with rockets on the corners of it allowing it to fly.

"What's that?" James shouted over the noise of the rockets. Before anyone could respond, ropes came down from inside the airship and lots of people started to slide down them. Once the people where on the ground, they ran over and surrounded Jessie, James, and Meowth.

"Great, just what we needed," Jessie said while looked all around them. All of them had a matching green uniform on. The giant airship landed a little bit away and the sound from it died down.

"Alright, what do you green freaks want?" Jessie yelled. James held Scarlett closer while Meowth slowly unsheathed his claws.

"So you're the three I've heard so much about," a deep voice came from somewhere behind the men surrounding them. Two people parted to let the guy inside the circle and closed back in once he was in.

Frankly, Jessie thought that the man couldn't look more rich even if he tried. He might as well put a sign on his forehead saying, 'Hey, I have more money than you,' because that's pretty much what his clothes said.

"Jessie and James, if I'm not mistaken," the man said in his pretending-to-be-nice-but-not-really attitude. "It's an honor to meet two agents of Team Rocket," he said with a bow.

"You rich people make me sick," Jessie said with disgust. "'It's an honor,' hah!" She turned to James. "No offence."

"Why don't we skip the formalities and get to the point," James said, already not liking this guy. He ignored Jessie's comment.

"Well, fine then. If you do not want my hospitality, then I'll show you none." The man pointed to Scarlett and then to Meowth.

"I need that vulpix and meowth from you," he said bluntly.

"Why, so you can get more rich? Listen, Mister Fancy Pants, but we already have claims on these two, so you can't have them," Jessie spat out. "So why don't you get out of our way before we make you?"

"I don't think you're in the position to make those demands," the man said with a grimace.

"We'll just see about that!" James said before taking a Pokeball of his belt. "Weezing, front and center!" he yelled before releasing it.

"Arbok, let's show Mr. Rich-Rich what's coming to him," Jessie shouted before throwing her Pokeball and let Arbok out.

The people around the circle were about to release their Pokemon before the Big Cheese stopped them.

"I can handle this," he said before taking off a Pokeball of his own. "Now is the time, Tyranitar," The man lightly tossed the ball into the air, which was much less dramatic than how Jessie or James did it. Out of the ball came a towering Pokemon with green, armor-like hide covering almost its entire body. It let out a roar that made even the grunts shake with fear. They all backed away from the battlefield.

"Arbok, Poison Sting!" Jessie called out first. Arbok opened its mouth and out came lots of little stingers covered in Poison. Everyone of them hit Tyranitar, but they all bounced off harmlessly, with the Tyranitar not even flinching from the attack.

"That's…not good," Jessie whispered.

"Weezing, Sludge attack!" James called out. Weezing let loose a barrage of large balls of sludge and sent them towards Tyranitar. However, it just knocked them out of the way easily with the back of his hands.

"That's…powerful," James whispered.

"Alright, Tyranitar, use Hyper Beam," the boss ordered. Tyranitar opened its mouth and a ball of energy started to form. Jessie and James along with Wobbuffet and Meowth all dived to the left while Arbok and Weezing dived to the right. The Hyper Beam went straight down the middle, landing where the group had been.

"Now, Earthquake!"

The Tyranitar jumped up into the air and landed on the ground so hard that it started to shake.

Jessie, James, and Wobbuffet tried to keep on two feet,(or four in Wobbuffet's case) but inevitably failed as the three of them fell to the ground. As he fell, James lost his grip on Scarlett and she flew out of his hands.

"Scarlett!" James yelled out from the ground.

"I"ve got her!" Meowth yelled. Because of his small size and limber cat-like moves, he was able to stay upright when his partners weren't. Meowth scrambled over to Scarlet and helped her to her feet, only to have her fall again due to the Earthquake.

Arbok fell over almost immediately. Having a weakness to ground also didn't help as it was knocked back and forth by the shaking. Weezing, however, was flying harmlessly over it all.

All of the grunts had a hard time not falling as well, which most of them failed at doing, and ended up with the same fate as Jessie and James. The boss, however, just stood there, not budging an inch.

Finally, the ground stopped shaking and everything became quiet again.

"Let's finish this, shall we?" the boss said with a smirk. "Tyranitar, Hyper Beam."

Once again, Tyranitar charged up a ball of energy in its mouth that turned into a solid beam that headed straight for Jessie, James and Wobbuffet. It slammed into the three of them, sending them flying once again.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they yelled until they disappeared out of sight.

"_Wobbuffet!_"

"Jessie! James!" Meowth yelled after them. He tried to help Scarlett to her feet once again, but she was too weak to stand.

"Now that they're dealt with," the boss said and looked back at one of his grunts who was still on the ground. The grunt remembered what he was supposed to do and jumped back up to his feet.

"Vileplume, Sleep Powder!" he yelled and threw a Pokeball. Out of it came a large, flower-like Pokemon. Not even a second after its release, Vileplume sprayed out a blue powder over Meowth and Scarlett. Meowth didn't even have time to react before he started to feel really sleepy. He closed his eyes, fell onto the ground, and lost consciousness, as did Scarlett.

The boss put on another smile.

"That wasn't so ha-" he started to say before a sharp pain erupted from his arm. His other arm moved instinctively to the spot where it hurt. He looked down to see three, purple stingers sticking out of his arm. He looked up just in time to see Arbok jumping towards him with fangs open. He ducked, causing Arbok to fly over him and slam into a grunt. Weezing followed suit and flew towards the boss.

"Tyranitar, deal with it!" the boss ordered. Tyranitar jumped in front of Weezing and grabbed it. Once in its hands, Tyranitar chucked Weezing behind him. The other grunts had got Arbok off of the first one just in time as Weezing hit into Arbok.

"Once more, Hyper Beam!" the boss called out. For the third time, Tyranitar fired the beam and hit it Arbok and Weezing, sending them also flying off, but in the total opposite direction that Jessie and James had gone.

Once that all was over, the boss returned Tyranitar and started to pick the Poison Stings out of his arm.

"Boss, are you okay?" a grunt came up to him.

"I'm fine, just get the meowth and vulpix into the prison bay."

"Yes sir," the man said with a salute.

The boss returned back to his chair in the pilot room.

"Sir, are we heading back to base?" the pilot asked.

"No, not yet," he responded, still clutching his arm. "We need to stop at a certain Pokecenter first and pick up a Pokemon."

"Yes sir," the pilot said with a salute and started the engines up. The airship lifted off the ground and started to fly back in the direction of the Pokecenter.

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**Thanks for reading.**


	11. Friends Like These

**Hey guys, and welcome to the very overdue chapter eleven. It seems that in Summer break, I actually have less inspiration to write than I did when I was in school, as counterintuitive as that may be. But, I haven't stopped writing. I will personally tell you all that if that happens. I'll try to have chapter 12 out a lot sooner, but no promises. Anyway, hope you like it.**

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The room was darkly lit; the only light was coming from a candle on the desk. Sure, Sneasel could have turned on the lights to study, but she became more focused if she used no other light source than a candle. She didn't know why this was the case, but it was what it was.

Sneasel was sitting by the desk in a chair. Other than the candle, the only thing that was on the desk was a reading book.

Sneasel stared outside the window of her room into the darkness of the night.

"_Wonder how Meowth is doing_," she thought out loud. However, when she remembered Meowth, she remembered what she had been doing before she had gotten distracted. She turned back to the book on her desk. The page she was on had one simple sentence.

"The big red dog jumped over the small yellow doghouse."

Sneasel took a deep breath and then started to repeat it to herself.

"_Sneasel-sne, sneasel sneasel," _she said out loud.

"_One more time_," Sneasel thought. She tried to say it once more.

"_Sneas-_do_-l _ju-_sneasel sne-_house." After saying this, she let out a sigh.

"_Man, I didn't know talking human would be this hard,_" she said to herself. "_How does Meowth do it?"_

Suddenly, a knock came from Sneasel's door, which made her heart skip. Quickly, she closed the book and hastily shoved it in a drawer.

"_Come in_," she called out. The door opened and in came someone she wasn't expecting to see at this hour. _"Meowth? What are you doing here_?"

"I just wanted to come and see how you were doing."

"_I'm doing well_. _So, how did it go_?" She asked. A smile creeped onto Meowth's face, and Sneasel knew exactly what that meant. A smile worked its way onto her face too. "_Does this mean you made it?_"

"Just barely, but we passed. We technically didn't complete the task, but they thought we had done a good enough job, so we were promoted anyway."

Sneasel was so happy that she jumped up from her chair, ran over and hugged Meowth, something he wasn't expecting.

"_That's so awesome. I'm really proud of you!_"

"Yeah, thanks. But I'd appreciate it if you didn't crush me."

"_Oh, sorry_," Sneasel backed off, blushing a little.

"So, what are you doing up this late? I thought I'd find you sleeping."

"_Oh, you know. Nothing much_," Sneasel said while shuffling her feet. "_Hey, Meowth, can I ask you a question?_"

"Sure, what is it?"

"_Did…I mean…was it…hard…when you learned how to talk?"_ Sneasel stumbled through her sentence. She looked at the ground when she was done.

Meowth thought this was an odd question.

"Why do ya ask?"

"_Oh…I was…just wondering, that's all_."

"Well, yeah, it was pretty challenging. I had to work day after day in order to be able to speak right. But now, I can do it without any trouble. In fact, nowadays I talk human even if I'm talking to a Pokemon, like you."

"_Oh…I see,_"

Meowth let out a yawn. "After that mission, I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed. I recommend you do the same.

"_I'll…think about it_. _Good night._"

"You too."

And with that, Meowth left the room and closed the door.

Once she was sure he was gone, Sneasel opened the drawer again and pulled out the book. She got back to the page she was on.

"_Alright. I'll just have to keep practicing, no matter how hard it is._"

* * *

Lucy awoke to someone nugging her arm. She rolled over and tried to ignore whoever had touched her. The person poked her again.

"Leave me alone. I'm sleeping," she said groggily.

"But, Miss Lucy, you must take your medicine if you want to feel better," a voice Lucy did not recognize said. After a bit of hard work, Lucy opened her eyes and looked at the man. It was one of the boss's goons. She had seen him around the base but didn't know him by name. In his hands was a vial of medicine and a tablespoon with some of it. "This will help you with your burns," the man explained.

Lucy sat right up and complied, taking the spoon from the man. She swallowed all of the medicine. It tasted very bitter, but she didn't care. It's not like she hadn't tasted worse. It was at this point that the realization hit her. She was no longer inside the Pokecenter, but inside the medical bay they had on the airship.

"How did I get here?"

"We dropped by the Pokecenter and picked you up. You were sleeping, so we didn't wake you when we transported you here."

"Are we going back to base?"

"We already did, and now we are heading out again. You see, both of our clients want to pick up their Pokemon today, so we are traveling to an area to meet them both right now.

"I see…" Lucy's head perked up once she remembered something. "So…did we end up capturing the meowth and the vulpix?"

"Yup, our boss got 'em. His tyranitar destroyed the Team Rocket agents like they were nothing," the man said with a smile. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to sleeping."

"No, it's fine, I'm awake now."

"Alright then." The man walked out of the automatic doors of the infirmary, and when he did, someone else walked in.

"_Hey Lucy. How you doing?_" the ampharos said.

"Jake?"

"_You were out for a while. A few hours, in fact_._ Are you feeling any better_?"

Lucy moved her legs and arms around, and they still hurt when she did.

"Not really."

"_Sorry to hear that_."

Lucy struggled to get off the bed she was on. She made it off the bed, but moving was still really painful.

"_Lucy, you really shouldn't move right now_," Jake advised.

"No, I need to see Meowth. Where is he?"

"_Him? Why do you_-"

"Just tell me. Is he in the holding cell?"

"_Yeah, that's where he is_."

"Good." Lucy tried to walk forward, but a sharp pain in her leg caused her to fall down. Jake caught her and propped her up right. He went over to a corner of the room and picked up something in the corner.

"_Lucy, I-_"

"I said I'm going!" she shouted. Lucy looked over to Jake and her expression changed when she saw what Jake had in his hands.

"_Here, these will help_," he said while handing Lucy the crutches. She took them with a smile.

"Thanks, Jake," she thanked. She left the infirmary, hopping on the crutches, and Jake followed behind her.

* * *

James looked out across the vast expansive land that he could see from the cliff he was on. He cupped his hands to his mouth and called out.

"Weezing! Where are you?!" he yelled out. Jessie came up next to him and did the same.

"Arbok! Can you hear me?!"

No response came.

"I can't believe we didn't blast off together," Jessie put her hands on her hips.

"I wonder if they were able to capture Meowth and Scarlett?" James speculated as he put one of his hands on a tree.

"I…don't know," Jessie replied honestly.

James' eyes lit up when he thought of something.

"You don't think they would have captured Arbok and Weezing as well, would they?"

"Why would they want them?" Jessie asked rhetorically. "Come on, let's keep up the search. They've got to be around here somewhere.

"Right."

* * *

Arbok waited on the ground silently. He was coiled up and had his head down. He looked thoroughly depressed.

Above him, Weezing drifted down to the ground from the tree he had flown up to. Arbok lifted his head up to his poison partner.

"Any sign of them?" he asked with hopelessness. He knew what the answer would be.

Just as Arbok expected, Weezing shook his head. The cobra let out a deep sigh.

"Are we ever going to find them?" Arbok wondered out loud.

"I don't know," Weezing replied while sitting next to the snake.

"Do you think they're alright?"

Weezing didn't reply, which made Arbok more depressed.

"We can keep looking," Weezing suggested.

"What's the point? They blasted off in an entirely different direction. They may be miles away from us."

"Yeah…"

The two waited in silence, not saying anything to one another. Arbok just stared out into the horizon while Weezing sat and thought about what to do.

The silence was broken by a loud noise coming from the sky. Arbok and Weezing both looked up to the sky to see a familiar airship flying over head. It flew right past the two and continued into the distance.

"Was that…?" Arbok stared with his mouth open.

"I think it was," Weezing confirmed. Arbok got on a new face. A face of determination.

"Come on. They have Meowth and Scarlett and we're going to get them back," He said with confidence. Arbok got up out of his coil and started to slither in the direction the airship was going.

"Are you sure?" Weezing questioned.

"I know that that's what Jessie would want, so if we can't find her, we'll go and save those two."

Weezing thought about it for a second, and then agreed.

"Let's go."

And so, the two headed off to go and save Meowth and Scarlett.

* * *

Meowth had awoken in a cage. Inside the room were many other cages, all filled with different Pokemon that the Pokemon hunter had captured.

Meowth and Scarlett had tried everything to break out of the container, but nothing worked. Clawing the bars, picking the lock, burning the lock off, even slamming into the bars, it was all pointless, as the cage didn't even dent.

"_There's gotta be some way out of here." _Scarlett hadn't quite given up yet. Meowth, on the other hand, had.

"If you have any other escape plans, then let hear it," Meowth skulked. Scarlett looked all around the room for something, anything, that could help them.

Just then, the two large doors the the prison opened. In came the sneasel and ampharos from before. The ice type was using crutches to walk.

"What do you guys want?" Meowth spat, not in the mood to deal with them.

"Wow, that's not a way to treat someone who's in clinical care," the sneasel that Meowth remembered as Lucy snarked.

"Yeah, well it is the way to treat someone who tried to capture me!" Meowth remarked. He turned his head away from the Pokemon at the entrance and closed his eyes. He wanted nothing to do with these guys.

"What about an old friend?"

Lucy's statement hit Meowth like a hammer that pounded onto his heart.

"_Old friend?_" Meowth thought. Looking up, the cat bore his eyes into Lucy's. _"I've seen those eyes before,_" Meowth thought, _"but where?_"

That's when the realization hit him. All the memories flooded back to him at the same time. It was almost too much to take.

With his mouth agape, this was one of the few times Meowth was at a loss.

"No way, you're…" Meowth trailed off because he still didn't believe it. But, the evidence was very much there.

"Looks like you finally recognized me. About time."

"_Meowth, do you know this sneasel?_" Scarlett asked. He didn't answer, and instead kept looking on.

"That can't be you! Sn-Sneasel?" Meowth was finally able to get the name out. She put up a hand.

"I go by Lucy now."

"Lucy…" Meowth let that settle with him. "I…I didn't recognize you. You look so different, and can talk."

"Yeah, I'm a lot different since we last met. How many years has it been? Three?"

Meowth thought about it. "About that, yeah." Meowth's demeanor changed to a more happy one. "Hey, come on and let me out so we can catch up. We can talk, like the good old times."

Lucy let out a sigh."I can't do that," she said while wagging one of her claws.

"Wh-why?" Meowth gasped, his joyful attitude had gone as fast as it came.

"See, I work for the Pokemon hunter that captured you, so I can't just go and let you out, now can I?" Lucy asked rhetorically.

"Lucy? Come on? You're not serious, are you?"

"I am," She said sternly. "I'm…sorry," she quickly said, and then turned around and limped out of the room with her crutches.

"Lucy, wait!" Meowth shouted as he went up next to the bars. She didn't even turn around as the ampharos and Lucy left the room, the doors closing behind them.

"Lucy…"

* * *

Once the doors closed, Lucy looked back at them and gave another deep sigh.

"_Something wrong?_" Jake asked.

"What? Oh, it's…nothing."

"_Are you sure? You seem kinda-,"_

"I'm sure," Lucy interrupted hastily. Jake didn't buy that nothing was wrong, as something was clearly troubling her, but he decided it would be best if he didn't press any further.

"Attention," a voice came from over the intercom. Lucy and Jake looked up to the speaker it was coming from. "We will be landing soon. We need everyone to their places."

"Well, guess that's my cue," Lucy said. She started to hop away on her crutches.

"_Your cue?_" Jake wasn't entirely sure what Lucy meant by that.

"I need to be there for the exchange, to translate any Pokemon that might need it, you know."

"_I gotcha_."

Lucy continued on her path. Jake came up and walked beside her.

"_So Lucy, you and Meowth were friends at one point, right?"_

"Well…yes, at a time we were."

"_So, won't it feel weird to sell him over to someone?"_

Lucy took a deep breath and turned head away from the ampharos.

"Jake, my loyalty lies to this organization now. I can't have some old friends getting in the way of that."

Jake had heard a bit of regret in her voice, like she was fighting whether or not that was what she truly wanted.

"_But from what I heard of you two, you seemed like really good friends. Are you really just going to-"_

"Jake, you say that like I have a choice!" Lucy said just under a yell, which took him by surprise. Lucy shook her head to clear her mind. "Look, just…don't talk to me, okay?" Lucy walked away, and Jake didn't follow.

"_Lucy…_"was all he could get out.

* * *

Arbok and Weezing had followed the aircraft all the way to its landing point, which thankfully wasn't far from where they were originally. Now, the two poison types hid in the brush, watching the ship land from afar.

"So, what's the plan?" Weezing asked. Arbok didn't answer and kept staring at the craft. "Do you have a plan?"

"I… no I don't," Arbok respond honestly. "Jessie and James always came up with the plans. I don't know the first thing to do."

Weezing looked back at the airship. It was fully on the ground now, and a large ramp had come down from it. Lots of people ran down the ramp, as well as the boss in charge. Around one of his arms were white bandages, slightly stained red with blood. Arbok smiled a bit at this sight.

Beside him was the Sneasel from earlier, except this time she was on crutches.

"So that's the damage the entei did," Weezing examined, feeling slightly sorry. He wasn't there personally for what had happened to her, but had heard the talk that Jessie had with James while he was in his Pokeball.

"Yeah, she was hit pretty hard," Arbok added.

A little bit after those two, two other grunts came out, but in their hands were cages, one containing Meowth, the other containing Scarlett.

"There they are," Arbok pointed out the obvious. "But I have no idea how we're going to get past all of those other humans?" There were so many of them, they would have no chance. "I guess it's hopeless."

"Don't say that!" Weezing snapped at his partner. "Remember what Jessie and James always did when something didn't go their way, or they didn't have a plan? They went through with it anyway. They worked on their feet and didn't give up. So neither should we. To do so would be an insult to our masters!"

Arbok was taken by surprise. Weezing wasn't usually this riled up. But he did have a point.

"You're right," Arbok affirmed and turned back to the group. Now he was ready. He didn't have a plan, but Weezing made him realized he didn't need one. "Then let's do it!" the snake yelled and jumped out of the brush, while Weezing followed behind him.

* * *

**Hope you guys liked it. Again, I'll try to get chapter 12 out as soon as possible.**


	12. What We Had Together

**I realized that all these greetings at the beginning of the chapters probably sound really weird if you are reading them in a row. Oh well. I really liked how this chapter turned out and I hope you do too. **

**Also, this is going up on my birthday, so, that's cool.**

**Anyways, enjoy.**

* * *

The waiting was unbearable. With every passing second, Lucy's will was wavering. Her heart was beating like a hammer on an anvil. She only wished that the buyer would be here soon. To be honest, she felt like crying, but Lucy would never actually do that. Not in front of others. She couldn't show her weakness.

Standing on the ramp beside the boss, Lucy didn't dare look over to where Meowth was, sitting in a cage that a grunt was holding. She couldn't face him when she was about to turn him over. Lucy tried to get her mind off him, but every time she did, she just went back to thinking about him. It was impossible to just forget what they had together.

* * *

"Almost, Sneasel, almost. You just need to be a little bit faster!" Meowth encouraged. Sneasel replied with a nod. Once more, she rushed at Meowth with her claws out. She lunged at the cat and tried to scratch him. Meowth dodged to the side, but Sneasel was expecting this. Instead of aiming at him, she aimed at where he was going to dodge, and hit him square in the side. Meowth let out a small yelp as the claws dug into his skin. He fell to the ground and grabbed his side.

Sneasel ran to a halt after her attack and turned around. She gasped once she saw the damage. She had never meant to hurt Meowth, she had just ment to graze him with her claws. This was just a training match after all.

"_Oh my god, Meowth are you okay_?" Sneasel exclaimed and ran up you him.

"Yeah, I'm good." Meowth got up from the ground with his hand still around his wound. "I wasn't expecting 'dat. You truly are getting better. I'm not going to have much to teach you soon."

"_You really think so_?" Sneasel said. She truly was getting better. Then again, she had been practicing battling almost non-stop, and when she wasn't battling, she had been trying to speak human. She was certainly getting better at both.

"Yeah. You'll do good when I'm gone," Meowth said proudly.

Sneasel was staggered by this. She gave Meowth a strange look.

"_Gone_?" she asked quietly.

Meowth's eyes widened. "I never told you, did I?"

"_You never told me what?"_

Meowth sighed. "We're being sent on our first mission in about a month. Once we go, we will almost never come back here."

Sneasel couldn't believe this. Sure, she had known that Meowth would leave from the time he was promoted, but it never sunk in. Meowth was the whole reason that she was alive, and now she would, what? Just never see him again?

"_No, this isn't possible. Are you sure? _

"Of course. Why do you think I would lie?"

"_Do you have to go?"_

"Sneasel, you know I have to. This is something that I've wanted to do since I began to talk. I hate to leave you, but I know you'll do fine."

Sneasel wasn't going to stand for this. She would think of something.

"_What…what about if I go with you?"_

Meowth shook his head. "No, only agents are able to go on missions. Sorry."

"_What if I become an agent?" _Sneasel said out of nowhere. "_Then I would be able to come with you, right?_"

This took Meowth by surprise. "But, Sneasel, I thought you were only here until you were strong enough to go on your own. I didn't think you wanted to join up."

"_Well…now I do_."

"What's with the change?"

"_Well, I want to go with you_."

"I understand 'dat, but I'm sorry. Even if somehow you did become an agent, they only allow for up to three of 'dem in a squad, and mine's filled out."

Sneasel felt hopeless. "_There's gotta be some way I can come with you guys, right?" _Sneasel thought about it, and came up with something. "_I could become one of your friend's Pokemon. I could come with you then, right_?" Sneasel was getting desperate, and Meowth could tell that.

"But, Sneasel, you told me that you would never become a trainer's Pokemon. You said that you'd die before you went into a Pokeball. Why are you actin' like this?"

"_Because I need to come with you!"_

"Why?"

Sneasel couldn't take it anymore.

"_Because you're all I have!_" Sneasel shouted, tears welling up in her eyes. "_There would be no reason for me to live if you left!_"

Both of them stood there, not really moving. Meowth didn't know how to react to this sudden outburst. This was never something Meowth expected to hear from his ice type friend. What was he supposed to say to this? 'I'm sorry, but I'm leaving anyway'?

Thankfully, Meowth didn't have to say anything.

"Hey, Meowth there you are! Thought I'd find you here," a voice came from somewhere to Meowth's right. He looked over to see Jessie coming over to him, her black Team Rocket outfit standing out from the lush green grass. They were currently in the process of getting new outfits that were white instead of black. The three of them knew that they would look better than that way.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Meowth staggered to say, still recovering from what Sneasel had said to him.

Jessie looked over at Sneasel, but then looked over at Meowth. "The boss want's to see us. Come on, we shouldn't keep him waiting."

"Ri-right," Meowth stumbled over the word. He turned back to Sneasel. "Hey, I'll…see you later, I guess."

Meowth whipped around and went with Jessie.

As the two walked away, Sneasel wiped away tears that had fallen down her face. She stared at Meowth until he was out of sight.

It wasn't going to end like this. It couldn't end like this. Sneasel was going to find some way to go with Meowth, even if it meant going against everything she had stood for.

* * *

"Lucy, is something the matter?" The boss's voice snapped Lucy out of her flashback.

"Um…It's nothing. I'm fine."

"Good." The boss checked his watch. "The clients should have been here five minutes ago. What's keeping them?"

No one was able to ponder that thought, however, as a thick layer of smoke came over all the grunts, the boss, and Lucy, right after he was done talking. Everyone covered their eyes and started coughing.

"What is this?" a random grunt called out. No one could see anything, as the smoke was so dense.

Everyone except Lucy, that is.

Lucy had always had exceptional eyesight, and the Smokescreen didn't hinder it at all. Trying not to breath in the smoke, Lucy opened her eyes and ignored the stinging that it caused. Throught all the smog, Lucy saw the one who was doing it. A weezing was spewing all of the thick mist from his mouth towards the group.

Before anyone else in the group had even stopped coughing from the smoke, Lucy dove toward the poison type with blinding speeds that even the weezing couldn't keep up with. The pain that came from her burns reminded her that they were there, but it didn't stop her. Lucy jumped towards the weezing and Slashed him right across the face with her long claws. This caused the weezing to recoil because of pain. It also stopped him from spewing the smoke.

Finally, one of the grunts wised up and realized what he needed to do.

"Pidgeot, use Gust!" he called out, still covering his mouth, and threw his Pokeball into the air. Out came a large, brown bird Pokemon with red stripes who immediately started to vigorously flap its wings, calling out its name in the process.

After a few good flaps from the large Pidgeot's wings, all the smoke dissipated, allowing the grunts to catch a break and regain their senses.

"Hey! Where's the cage?" a grunt called out through the confusion. Everyone turned to him to see that he no longer had the cage the carried Meowth inside of it.

"Mine's gone too!" the woman who was carrying Scarlett's cage exclaimed. The group looked around franticly, trying to find the culprit.

"Hey, it's that arbok!" one of the grunts pointed to an arbok who had slithered away from the group. In his jaws were the two cages that contained Meowth and Scarlett. He looked back to see that the smoke had cleared. He started to slither away at a faster pace.

"Don't let it get away!" the boss yelled.

All the grunts simultaneously pulled off their Pokeballs off their belts and threw them in the air, releasing all their Pokemon.

Lucy, however, didn't wait for any of the others. She was already on top of the arbok before any Pokemon had even come out. Lucy jumped as high as she could and gave the snake a good punch to the face, which caused him to cry out in pain, which in turn caused him to open his mouth and drop both of the cages. They hit the ground with a clang. Afterwards, Lucy tackled the arbok to the ground. Now that Lucy was on top of his head, she put her claws behind her head and prepared to slash the arbok one more time to incapacitate it.

But she stopped herself.

Lucy was now able to get a better look at this arbok, and she recognized it.

"Wait, aren't you...?" Lucy stopped herself while she pondered this. Before she was able to say anything else, Arbok opened his mouth and shot out lots of little poisonous stings at Lucy. Each one made contact with her face, and she grimaced as each one of them hit. Lucy jumped off of Arbok as she recovered from the barrage.

All the Pokemon from the grunts were now out and the trainers were calling out all kinds of different attacks.

Quickly, Weezing, who had now recovered from his injury, floated over to where Arbok was getting up and let off another Smokescreen. The smoke surrounded all the grunts once again, and they started to cough wildly. This also made all of the attacks miss their targets.

Arbok made a quick recovery and picked up both the cages, once again traveling off into the brush, away from everyone. Weezing followed him once he figured he had sprayed enough smoke.

Lucy knew that she was the only one that would be able to stop them. She was the closest to them and could still see the two. By the time Pidgeot would be able to blow all of the smog away, they would already be gone. Lucy needed to act.

But she didn't.

She had a clear shot at them and could stop the two, but something was holding her back. No one was literally grabbing her, but Lucy felt an emotional force inside of her that prevented the sneasel from moving. What was that feeling? Was…

Was it because of Meowth?

Indeed, as predicted, by the time Pidgeot was able to blow away all of the smoke, Arbok and Weezing were already gone, disappeared into the brush of the forest.

"Everyone, split up and find them," the boss called out. Right after he said this, his phone started to ring. Taking it out of his pocket, he clicked a button on it and pulled it up to his ear.

"Yes, what is it, I don't-" the boss said hastily before someone on the other end yelled something that Lucy couldn't quite hear. But from the Boss's reaction, it wasn't anything good.

"WHAT!" he shouted, which caused all the grunts to stop moving and look up at him. "Understood, I'll be there as fast as I can." The boss hung up and yelled at all the grunts. "Everyone, back inside the ship. We are heading back to base!"

"But boss, what about the meowth and the vulpix?" one of the grunts asked.

The boss thought for a second. "Lucy, are you well enough?" he turned his head to the sneasel. Lucy moved a few of her limbs. Sure they hurt, but she wasn't going to back down.

"Enough," she said with a nod.

"Good. I want you to go after those two and get them back," the boss said sternly while all of the grunts returned their Pokemon and ran into the airship.

Lucy opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself.

"Is there any problem?"

"Um…no…no there's not," Lucy answered firmly.

"Good. When we went and picked you up, we also picked up your jeep. It's in the garage. Now get there before we leave, which will be very soon."

"Yes sir!" Lucy said with a salute. She ran into the base in front of the boss and immediately booked it for the garage.

Jake had just been meandering around the base with nothing to do when he heard something going on outside. He was about to go and investigate before he saw Lucy run around the corner. Jake caught up with her and then ran beside the dark type.

"_Hey, I heard some commotion outside. Everything alright?"_

"Meowth and the vulpix escaped, and now the boss is having me go after them."

"_So why are you running in the base? _

"Going to get my jeep."

"_Wouldn't it be hard to drive a jeep like that though a forest?"_

"There's and overlook that oversees the whole forest. If I go there, I'll surely be able to see where those four went."

"_Four?_"

"Look, I don't have time to talk right now."

"_Alright, I'll come with you_."

"No you won't."

"_Wh-why not?"_

The two had made it to the garage and had now stopped running. Grunts were running everywhere, trying to get organized as quick as they could. The order to evacuate had been hastily told to everyone, and no one knew exactly what was going on. It was mass confusion.

Lucy turned to Jake. "Look, I need to do this alone. I have to overcome this myself," she said in a serious voice.

"_Overcome this yourself? Lucy, what are you talking about?_"

"Nevermind. You wouldn't understand. You're not coming with me, and that's that." Lucy turned away and ran off towards her jeep.

Something was wrong, and Jake knew it. Lucy wasn't herself. He could tell that she was struggling with something inside and she would need help with whatever that was.

"_Not if I can help it_," Jake whispered and ran after Lucy.

Lucy jumped into her jeep and took her keys from the place she had left them, in a secret compartment under the driver's seat. Lucy put them into the ignition, but for a second it wouldn't start.

"Come on, start!" Lucy yelled while she kept trying.

Suddenly, Lucy's whole car shook. She looked behind and didn't see anything, so she figured that it was the airship that made it fidget like that. Lucy tried the ignition again, and it worked. Her engine purred to life, but it was too late, as the ship was already lifting off the ground, and the garage door was closing.

"_Thanks for waiting for me to leave before you flew off," _Lucy thought sarcastically. Then again, that was just like the boss to not wait for anyone, even her.

Lucy stepped on the gas and drove through the garage. She got to the gate of it just as it was closing. There was just enough room for Lucy and her jeep. She held on tightly as she drove just under the gate.

"_This is going to hurt," _Lucy said to herself.

Since the airship had already taken off, the car was about 10 feet off the ground when it exited the garage. When the jeep hit the ground, it caused a shockwave to go through Lucy's body that made her jump up in her seat. The burns on her body did not like the stunt she had just performed and were hurting a lot because of it. A small shout of pain escaped her, but nothing more. She ignored to pain and kept driving.

Lucy was told to find Meowth, and that was what she was going to do. Nothing else mattered.

* * *

Arbok and Weezing ran until they were sure they weren't being followed anymore, and even then, they ran a bit more just to be on the safe side.

After what seemed like a long time, Arbok stopped slithering and looked behind him. They weren't being followed, so he decided to catch his breath. Weezing did the same as he floated to the ground.

Arbok set Meowth and Scarlett's cages down on the ground before laying on the ground himself.

"Wow, that was amazing. Thanks guys," Meowth complemented.

"_Yeah…don't…mention it…" _Arbok panted in between every word.

"_We knew…it's what Jessie and James…would have wanted," _Weezing added.

"Would have wanted?" Meowth asked. "Where are they?" He just now realized that his two partners were to where to be seen.

"_We don't know where they are,"_ Arbok answered. He finally had gotten the strength to get up again.

"_We got separated when we blasted off,_" Weezing explained, _"and we haven't been able to find them since." _

"I see…"

Meowth looked up to the sky to see the sun setting. "We better look for them tomorrow. We won't be able to see anything in the dark. Well, you guys won't be able to. Let's find a place to sleep."

"_Sure. But first, let's get you out of that cage_," Arbok suggested.

"See, we've already tr-" Meowth tried to warn the snake. Arbok didn't hear Meowth and he bit his fangs into the solid, metal cage. Arbok continued to bite down until his teeth started to hurt, but it was no use. Not even a dent appeared on the cage. Arbok backed away from the cage.

"_Man, that's some strong material."_

"_Here, let me try,"_ Weezing volunteered. He gathered up Sludge from inside of him, and then shot it at the cage. Meowth was not expecting this, and he put his hands in front of his face to brace himself for the attack.

However, it seemed that he didn't need to, as the Sludge attack hit the cage and then bounced off, not doing anything either.

"_Well…" _Weezing trailed off.

"_What are we going to do now?_" Scarlett asked.

"Jessie and James probably know how to get out of these. We need to find them," Meowth thought out loud. "But since we can't find them tonight, I guess we'll be sleeping inside these cages for now."

"I want to_ travel a bit more until we sit down to sleep. I hope to get as far away from those guys as possible,'_ Arbok said.

"Good plan," Meowth agreed.

Arbok bent down and picked Meowth and Scarlett's cages up again, and then started to slither away, with Weezing behind him.

* * *

"What's the point?" James said, exasperated from all of their searching. He slumped down onto a nearby rock, resting his sore legs.

"Hm?" Jessie let out a interrogative grunt while looking back at her companion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that we aren't going to find our Pokemon again," James' voice was muffled because his head was in his hands. He looked up at Jessie before talking again. "We've been looking over this whole area for them all day, and we haven't found even a single trace of them." James let out a large sigh and put his hands back in his head. "It's hopeless," he muttered.

This comment was met by a smack on the head.

"Don't say that!" Jessie yelled while James was rubbing his now aching head. "I can't believe you would give up on Weezing that easily. Tell me, do you think that Arbok and Weezing have stopped looking for us?"

"Well…no…I guess they wouldn't have," James replied, now getting Jessie's point.

"Then neither should we!" Jessie announced triumphantly. She looked over the horizon to see the setting sun. "Then again, it's getting late. We should set up camp before it gets dark. Tomorrow, we'll go back to our balloon and search for them from the air."

"Right," James sheepishly agreed.

* * *

Lucy's car slowed to a halt as she pressed on the brake pedal. Once it had fully stopped, the sneasel jumped out and took a look around.

There wasn't much to see, especially because it was now dark; the only light coming from the stars. Grass covered the dirty ground and a few bushes swayed in the wind. A rock outcropping was just a little ways away from where Lucy parked her car. It could see over the entire area around here. This was where she planned to look for Meowth and the others.

Slowly, Lucy walked over to the jutting rock. The only sound was that of the wind and of Lucy's footsteps, crunching the grass underneath her. She went all the way to the edge of the large rock, not caring about the distance between this rock and the ground far beneath it.

Lucy took a deep breath of nighttime air. It was sweet. It had its own scent to it, one that was different from any other, and Lucy liked it. Maybe it was the fact that she was part dark type, but Lucy had always loved the night. Everything about it made her feel at home, no matter where she was.

However, even if it felt good, it didn't get her mind off of her current job. She needed to catch Meowth, and that was that.

Focusing her eyes through the darkness, Lucy tried to spot the four who had escaped them.

For a few moments, Lucy stood completely still, the feather on top of her head being the only thing that was moving as it lightly blew in the wind.

After looking for a few more seconds, Lucy let out a large sigh.

"It's no good," she told herself. "Even I can't see in this darkness."

Lucy cursed under her breath and kicked a rock off of the cliff and listened for the satisfying 'clunk' that it made on the ground beneath.

In no rush, Lucy made her way back to her jeep. Hopping back into the driver's seat, Lucy lifted her legs on the steering wheel and put her hands back behind her head.

"Looks like I'm going to have to wait 'till morning," Lucy pondered outloud. Once it was daylight, she would be able to see clearly, and no matter how far they could have gotten, she would be able to see them. That is, unless the traveled through the night, but Lucy doubted that they would do that.

Leaning back, Lucy looked up to the stars that now littered the black sky. All of them were shining brightly, each one looking so brilliant in its own way.

Looking at the stars, it reminded Lucy about how she used to do this with…with

"...Meowth," she whispered aloud. Suddenly, the stars didn't seem so amazing, and instead just a painstaking reminder of what horrible task she needed to preform.

"Meowth, why could you have just never shown up," Lucy continued to talk to herself. "It would have been so much easier that way…" Lucy turned her head to the side. "Then I wouldn't have to make this awful decision."

Before Lucy was able to contemplate this anymore, she felt her car rocking back and forth. Getting up from her position, the sneasel looked all around, and she didn't see any reason that her car would be jerking like this.

Then, Lucy heard something come from the trunk. She was about to get up to investigate, but she didn't have to, as her trunk of her car exploded open. Something large and yellow fell out onto the grass with a thump.

Not somthing, but someone. Even in the dark, Lucy could see clearly who it was.

"Jake?"

The ampharos slowly worked his way up from the ground and onto his feet, rubbing the back of his neck.

"_I hoped I would never have to do that again_," Jake said off-handedly before turning to Lucy. "_Sorry to…uh…drop in on your alone time_."

"Jake, what are you doing here?" Lucy asked, mostly confused than angry.

"_Well, you see I knew something was troubling you, so I just had to follow you."_

"Jake, I told you that you wouldn't understand what I'm doing. I need to do this alone." Lucy was now gettle a little mad.

"_But that's just the thing!_" Jake said as he went over to Lucy. "_You are troubled because you don't want to capture Meowth, right?_"

Lucy took a deep breath and looked back up at the stars. "Yeah, that's it."

"_Well, why don't you just not capture him?_

"It's not that simple, Jake."

"_How so?_"

"I can't just go against the boss's orders."

"_Why can't you? If you and Meowth really are good friends, can't you just say no?_"

"Jake…I just…can't. You don't understand."

"_No, I don't! Please explain this to me!_"

Lucy got up from her relaxed position and looked at Jake.

"I can't. I'm sorry. I know that you don't understand why, but I do." Lucy closed her eyes. "I would do anything in the world to not have to capture Meowth, except disobeying the boss. Please, just…stop trying to change my mind. It's only making it worse."

Lucy and Jake stood there in silence half a minute before anyone else talked.

"_Alright. I'll stop._" Jake finally said. Lucy opened her eyes as Jake climbed into the car and sat beside Lucy.

"Really?" Lucy expected that Jake would keep persisting.

"_Sure. I may not think that this is the right thing to do, you know, capturing your best friend and all, but I know that you think it's right. So as long as you are doing what you think is right,"_ Jake turned to Lucy, "_then I'll help you do whatever that is."_

This prompted Lucy to do something that she rarely did nowadays.

She smiled.

It wasn't a grin, or a fake smile that she sometimes put on, but it was a genuine smile of happiness.

"Thanks, Jake."

"_Don't mention it_." Jake leaned back and joined Lucy in her stargazing. "_So when do we start?_"

"Well, I can't see them now, so we'll wait until morning, when I can see them. Then we go after them."

"_Sounds like a plan_," Jake agreed.

The two of them laid there, looking up to the stars, until sleep, eventually took them both.

* * *

Meowth looked up at the stars, or at least the ones he could see from his cage. They were as beautiful as ever.

Arbok and Weezing had already fallen asleep, but Meowth was having more trouble than they were, most likely because he did not have to run a half-marathon trying to get away from Pokemon hunters.

Or maybe it was something else.

"_Can't sleep?_" Meowth heard a voice to his side. He turned to see Scarlett looking at him from her cage that was only a third of a meter away from his.

"Yeah."

"_Why so_?"

Meowth took a deep breath. "Looking up at 'dese stars, it reminds me of what I used to do with Sneasel; or Lucy."

"_From what I heard, you guys were pretty close to each other."_

"We were," Meowth confirmed.

"_Then I wonder why she wanted to capture you."_

"Me too. But I bet she had a good reason for it, whatever that reason was."

The two continued in silence for a little longer.

"_Hey, Meowth?_"

"Hm?"

"_Why do you think those guys want to capture us?_"

"Money." Meowth answered simply. "They wanted to trade us for money."

"_So…they're not too different from you then, right? You guys are thieves and their hunters." _

Meowth was not expecting this kind of reply. He turned to Scarlett to say something, but stopped himself before he could. Look back at the ground, Meowth thought about what she said.

"I never thought about it, but…I guess you're right."

Meowth's eyes lit up when he realized something.

"What, so you knew that we were thieves?"

"_Of course. You are part of the infamous Team Rocket who are known for stealing Pokemon. And even if I didn't know that…you…kind of…took me away from my owner,_" Scarlett said with a little bit of snark. "_Did you think I was dumb?_"

"Ok then, Miss know-it-all, if you did know, then why didn't you run away from us when you could, and why did you help James those few times?"

Scarlett looked back up into the sky before answering.

"_It's because…well…you're…different…"_ Scarlett staggered as she thought about the right words to use.

"Different?"

"_Yeah, well…you know. I had always heard that members from Team Rocket were always evil and very selfish. But…you guys don't seem like either."_

"How would you know?"

"_The way you guys act towards each other, they way your friends act towards their Pokemon. And the way that you guys cared about me. You…just didn't seem…all that bad."_

"Scarlett, we captured you and are currently trying to take you to our boss so you can be sold to someone else. How does that not seem bad?"

"_Well…when you put it that way…,_" Scarlett trailed off. She looked down at the metal floor of her cage. "_Maybe…you're right_."

Meowth actually felt a little bit bad for bringing that fact up.

"_But that doesn't change that facts_," Scarlett perked up. _"I really enjoy traveling with you guys, even if you are trying to capture me, and if, at the end of this journey, I become someone's slave because of it…then so be it_."

With this last statement, Scarlett looked up to the moon and let out a large yawn.

"_Well, now I'm tired, so I'm going to go to sleep._" Scarlett curled up into a ball and closed her eyes.

Meowth decided that, even with all the things going on lately, he also needed to get some sleep.

Laying on his side, Meowth also closed his eyes and focused on clearing his mind of all present thoughts so he could sleep.

"_Hey, Meowth?_" Scarlett said from her cage. Meowth opened one eye and looked at her. "_Good night_," She said before closing her eyes again.

"You too," Meowth whispered with a smile.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. All of you supportive feedback really means alot to me, so thanks for all the reviews.**


	13. Closing the Gap

**I have to start this chapter with an apology about the month break in between chapters. It seems that all my chapters are starting with apologies these days. XD Anyway, I always assume that you would want quality over quantity, at least, that's I what I usually like. But I do have some good news. I have finished catching up with the Pokemon Anime, all 880-some odd number of episodes. Yes, I know I don't have a life, shut up. Whenever I wanted to do something Pokemon, but didn't want to play the games, I always went and watched the anime. Now that I can't do that, I will hopefully write more. Hopefully.**

**Anyway, I've taken up too much of your time. Here's the chapter. **

* * *

"Lucy, come in," the boss's voice came from over the earpiece. Lucy barely heard it in her tired, dazed state. Slowly, she opened her eyes, sleep still very evident in them.

The first thing Lucy saw with her newly aroused eyes was the dark blue sky. The stars were no longer visible as the atmosphere slowly became brighter and more vibrant.

Lifting herself up from her sleeping position, Lucy stretched her arms above her head and let out a large yawn. She immediately regretted the decision to stretch when her limbs started to hurt from the burns. Lucy let out a small grunt and put her arms down. She still wasn't used to having her whole body burnt.

The light of the sun was creeping its way up to the horizon. The morning star had yet to make an appearance, but the world was still slowly getting brighter as the flaming orb made its way upwards to the skyline.

Lucy decided that she would watch the sunrise before she got going; there wasn't any rush. They were in a car while Meowth and friends were on foot.

Thinking of this reminded Lucy about how she would always watch sunrises with Meowth.

"Meowth…" Lucy whispered to herself.

"Lucy, can you hear me?" the voice came again from Lucy's ear.

After emitting a yawn, Lucy responded, "Yeah, I'm here."

"Have you found that meowth and vulpix yet?"

"Hang on," Lucy said before hopping off of her jeep and onto the cold ground. She ran up to the overhanging from last night and looked out across the wide expanse of the world below her. Scanning across the scenery, Lucy looked for the purple colors of Arbok and Weezing. Eventually, Lucy spotted a violet glow in the midst of the all the green of trees and grass. The colors were faint, and someone with normal eyes would never be able to see them, but Lucy's eyes were much better than the average Joe.

"Yes, I found them," Lucy said back to the boss.

"Good. Get them back here to the base as fast you can. Don't dilly dally."

"Yes sir!" Lucy confirmed and ran back to her jeep. She realized that this meant she wouldn't be able to watch the sunrise, but she couldn't disobey the boss. She did a cool handstand flip over the door of the jeep and landed in the drivers seat.

Well, other people might not have found it cool, but she did.

Shrugging off the pain that her burns had caused when she did the flip, Lucy put her keys into the slot and started the car. The engine roared to life.

"_Lucy…what are you doing?" _Jake asked with a yawn. The engine must have awoken him.

"We're going after Meowth."

"_But the sun isn't even up_," he complained.

"Come on, you've woken up way earlier than this before," Lucy said in a semi-joking semi-serious voice.

"_You're right,_" Jake conceded with another yawn. He sat upright and looked out across the horizon. "_Are you sure you don't want to watch the sunrise?_" he asked.

"We don't have the time," Lucy said regrettably. "The boss want those two back as fast as we can get them."

"_Alright then, let's get to it!_"

Lucy backed up and pulled out of the clearing, now driving down it.

"_So, do you know where they are?"_ Jake asked.

"I know the area they are in, which isn't too far. We should be able to track them down."

"_Cool,"_ Jake said in a way that made it clear he didn't really care about the details, just that he would be able to do something. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

Lucy took one hand off the steering wheel and put it up against her earpiece.

"Hey, Boss?"

A few seconds of silence passed before an answer came.

"What is it, Lucy?"

"Why did you need to travel all the way back to base and leave the chase to me?" Lucy asked.

"While we were away, some other Team Rocket agents took that opportunity to run in and steal some of our Pokemon."

"Other Team Rocket agents, huh?" Lucy wondered who they might have been. "How many were stolen?"

"Not that many to make a difference. We can get more."

"Alright, that's all," Lucy finished and took her hand of the earpiece, now putting all of her attention on the road ahead.

The car hummed along for a few minutes as neither one of the Pokemon were wanting to talk. Jake was the one who broke silence.

"_Hey Lucy_?"

"Yeah?" Lucy said back, keeping her eyes on the road.

"_So…um, I've been meaning to ask this…but,"_ Jake knew that this might be a subject that Lucy didn't want to talk about, but he wanted to ask. "_What was with you and that entei?_"

"What?" Lucy was surprised by this question.

"_I mean, whenever you freaked out. You never told me why he scared you so much?"_

Lucy sighed and look down from the road and onto the steering wheel. Her eyes became glazed, as if she was distant from reality.

"_Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked,"_ Jake quickly apologized, seeing how Lucy was reacting to his question.

Lucy took in a deep breath."I don't want to talk about it, I'm sorry. Even thinking about it hurts. I'll just leave it at this. He did something that changed my life, and not for the better." Lucy put her eyes back on the road and continued to drive.

Jake decided that he shouldn't ever asked Lucy about her past life anymore, as it was clear she was very sensitive about it.

Which was weird, because sensitive was not a word he would have used to describe Lucy up until recently.

When he had first met the sneasel, she had an almost intimidating feel to her. A menacing aura that told you she meant business. You didn't want to mess with her, and if you did, you would regret it.

Jake wasn't feeling that anymore. Sure, it was still there, but not as much of it. It was like she had build up a facade of toughness that was just being torn down. Jake had his theories of why, but he kept them to himself.

"_Well, I hope we don't meet that entei again," _Jake said to himself, but loud enough for Lucy to hear.

"Me, too…"

* * *

As soon as they had awoken, Jessie and James had gone back to where they had parked their hot-air balloon. It was still there, and thankfully no had messed with or stolen it.

After they got it fired up, James, who was the pilot in the case that Meowth was gone, flew it up into the air, and the two of them started their search from the air.

"How do we even know they're still in this area?" James asked as he scanned the ground below him for their poison Pokemon.

"We don't," Jessie answered bluntly. "We just have to trust that they went far."

"And what about Meowth and Scarlett? Do you think that they were able to capture them?" James questioned, very concerned.

"I don't know," Jessie said in a very annoyed tone of voice.

"What about…,"

"James!" Jessie shouted with on hand in the air. James was started by this sudden outburst. "One problem at a time please!" she shouted. Jessie put her hand down and went back to searching.

Putting on his binoculars, James continued to look around the area. He thought about what he would do if they never found Meowth or Weezing again. Not only would he be very depressed, but that would most likely be the end of Team Rocket. It was only fun trying to capture Pikachu when they did it as a team. Without half of them, James would most likely leave. There would be nothing left for him here.

Snapping James out of his gloomy thoughts was a crackling sound that he had learned to associate to that of a Thunderbolt.

Indeed, as Jessie and James both looked behind them, they were able to catch a glimpse of a yellow light coming their way right before it hit their balloon.

The shockwave from that Thunderbolt caused the balloon to pop, which in turn made Team Rocket and the balloon start to fall to the ground.

Jessie and James immediately forgot the search and grabbed onto the nearest solid object so they wouldn't fly out of the balloon. For James, the nearest object was a pole that was on a corner of the basket, and for Jessie, the nearest object was James.

Both of them let out screams before the balloon finally slammed onto the ground with a thud.

The fall hurt a bit, but it wasn't anything Team Rocket wasn't used to.

Jessie was the first to get up as she clutched the walls of the basket. Once she was up, she slumped over the sides and slid down on the ground.

"This happens way too often," Jessie commented, exhausted.

James slowly got up himself, and walked out of the balloon before following Jessie and collapsing on the ground.

"Tell me about it," James said, truly tired of this, too.

"Alright, I don't want to fight," a female voice that sounded familiar came from somewhere to Jessie and James' right, "so if you guys can just hand over Meowth and that vulpix, we won't have to."

When they heard this, Jessie and James were up to their feet in a flash.

"No chance!" Jessie yelled before she even saw who was attacking them. When her eyes did eventually land onto the attackers, a grimace formed onto her face. "You two again!" she shouted as the sneasel and ampharos came into full view.

"Why do you two keep following us?" James unhooked Victreebel's Pokeball and got ready for a fight.

"I already told you," the sneasel said with her arms crossed, "we want Meowth and that vulpix. Give them here, or we'll force you to." The ampharos behind the sneasel got in a stance and prepared another Thunderbolt.

Jessie didn't quite remember what this girl's name was, even thought Meowth had told them. Loura? Zoey? Jessie didn't have the best memory with names, but it didn't matter. She wasn't going to let them get either Meowth or Scarlett.

Oh wait…

"What are you talking about? You've already captured them, haven't you?" Jessie asked with her fist clenched.

The sneasel, who James remembered as Lucy, was surprised by this. "So…you don't have them?"

"Of course not!" James yelled. "Why did you think so?"

Lucy put one of her hands up to her chin and thought a bit. The sneasel eventually turned to the ampharos and cleared her throat.

"_Do you think they weren't able to find Arbok and Weezing yet?_" Lucy spoke in the Pokemon language so Jessie and James couldn't understand them. "_Once we saw they're balloon, I was sure they had found them again." _

Jake was a little surprised to hear Lucy speak in her native tongue. He was so used to talking in human.

"_I…guess it's a possibility," _Jake replied with a shrug.

"_Where could they have gone then if not back to these two?"_ Lucy asked herself.

Jessie and James had no idea what the two of them were talking about. Without Meowth as a translator, they were completely lost.

"Um…excuse me? English please!" Jessie shouted at them with one of her feet tapping the ground.

Lucy looked back at Jessie with a face of annoyance. "Come on, Jake." Lucy motioned to her electric partner and the two of them walked away from the Team Rocket agents.

"And you're just going to leave?!" Jessie shouted after them with her back bent. She straightened out and crossed her arms before murmuring, "Twerps."

"Hang on," James said while pondering what Lucy had said. "That sneasel and ampharos work for the same hunters that made us blast of separately from Arbok and Weezing, right?"

"Yeah. So what?"

"Well, if they are looking for Meowth and Scarlett still, that means one of two things." James put his fingers up as he told each point. "One, they never were able to capture them in the first place, or two, Meowth and Scarlett somehow escaped them."

"So what you're saying is…" Jessie tried to follow what James was saying.

"What I'm saying is that Meowth and Scarlett are most likely somewhere out here, looking for us. That's why that ampharos shot our balloon down. They thought we had found them."

"Well, that means we need to find Meowth and Scarlett before those two do!" Jessie concluded. "Alright, let's move!" she said as she started to run in a direction.

"Wait, Jessie, what about the balloon?" James called after her.

"We don't have time for that. It's now a race, and we have to beat those freaks."

"Right," James agreed as he ran up to catch Jessie.

* * *

Arbok, Weezing, and Meowth all woke up early in the morning to be able to get more ground in between them and the hunters chasing them, and to find Jessie and James. Then again, they didn't wake up any earlier than they usually did. Team Rocket always had to wake up while the sun was still down to be able to make traps/mechs to go after the twerps.

Scarlett, on the other hand, never had to get up this early, so she was still sleeping soundly.

Deciding that it would be best not to wake her, Arbok lightly picked up her cage with his teeth while Weezing grabbed Meowth's.

That little movement, however, caused the vulpix to stirr.

"_Where are we going_?" Scarlett asked with a large yawn. It was clear that she did not usually have to be up at this time.

"We need to get moving, but feel free to sleep some more," Meowth told the small fire type, "It's not like you can move, after all."

"_True_," Scarlett agreed before another yawn escaped her mouth. She closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. She eventually succeeded.

The small trek that they took was pretty boring. Meowth had nothing to do and no one to talk to. Scarlett was sleeping and neither Arbok nor Weezing could talk with the cages in their jaws. So, Meowth had to resort to entertaining himself.

Thinking about it, Meowth really should have recognized Lucy the first time he saw her. She didn't look too different, as the past few years had been good to her, it seemed. She didn't sound too different either. Sure, she was speaking a different language, but her voice didn't change. Meowth even felt a bit stupid.

Soon afterwards, the group of four Pokemon made it to a deep ravine. It stretched out as far as you could see in either direction. Trees lined the other side of it. Thankfully, there was a rope bridge nearby the made the normally impassible obstacle not a problem at all.

Once they got to the bridge, however, it started to look like the large hole in the ground would still be a problem.

The bridge -if you could call it that- was in a terrible state. The stakes in the ground were rusted, the rope the held it together was frayed, and the wooden boards were cracked; if they were there at all.

Arbok and Weezing put down both of the cages in order to fully address this situation. The sudden jolt of the cage being put on the ground caused Scarlett to awake from her slumber.

"_What's the problem?"_ She asked before looking at the ravine and the bridge. "_Oh…" _

"_You sure this is safe?" _Weezing asked Arbok. He was, of course, not fazed by the bridge, since he could levitate, but Arbok could not.

"_No,"_ The snake answered straight. _ "I guess we could try and look for another bridge or a way around this."_

Right before they were about to leave and look for another way across, all four of them heard a sound that caused them to stop.

"Weezing! Can you hear me?" a voice that Weezing knew very well shouted through the air. It came from across the ravine.

"_James?"_ Weezing called back.

"Arbok? You around here?" a different voice rang out. This time, it was Arbok how reacted.

"_Jessie?" _he called out when he instantly recognized the voice.

Indeed, across the gap, both Jessie and James came out of the tree line on the other side.

Their faces lit up the second that they locked eyes.

"Arbok!" Jessie yelled over the casem. "Where have you been? We've been looking for you two everywhere.

"_We were busy," _Arbok replied even though he knew Jessie couldn't understand him. "_But, look what we got,"_ he said before picking up the cage with Meowth in it.

"Yo, guys. Nice of you guys to find us," the cat said with a grin.

"Meowth!?" Jessie and James said in unision.

"_And me!" _Scarlett called out from where she was on the ground. Weezing picked her up so that they could see her more clearly.

"How did you two get away from the hunter?" James shouted across the gap.

"We'll tell you later. First, get over here and let us out of these cages," Meowth yelled.

"Right," Jessie and James said together. They ran up to the bridge and started to cross it, Jessie going first. They were so excited to see all four of their Pokemon again that they didn't even check to see if the bridge was in good condition.

It wasn't.

"Hey, you might not want to-" Meowth tried to warn his friends.

"Want to what?" Jessie asked before looking down on the bridge and seeing her mistake. She took another step, only to have the board she stepped on crack and her leg go right through it. The board fell to the black darkness below. Jessie would have fell in too if James hadn't reached out and grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her onto a firm board. Once she regained her balance, Jessie let out a deep breath.

"Careful," James warned. Jessie nodded and continued to cross, more conscience of the danger that this bridge posed. The both of them were grabbing on the side ropes really tightly while Arbok, Weezing, Meowth and Scarlett all looked on, very nervous that the bridge might collapse.

Surprisingly, Jessie and James almost made it across the bridge, which was a lot of farther than anyone thought the bridge would hold. But, there was a small portion of rope which was extremely frayed and could not hold the combined weight of both Jessie and James.

When Jessie and James were almost across, the rope on the left side of the bridge snapped, which caused the bridge to swing wildly. Jessie and James both grabbed on to the right side rope to try and stabilize the bridge, but only ended up making the other rope to snap faster.

Another loud crack sliced through the air as the second rope gave way and was sliced. Jessie and James both let out a scream as the bridge under them collapsed and split in two.

"Jessie!" Meowth and Arbok yelled in unison.

"_James!"_ Scarlett and Weezing cried out.

While the bridge was falling down, Jessie quickly grabbed onto one of the planks and put her feet onto another. She held on for dear life as the bridge swung towards the rocks on the other side.

James tried to do that same thing and held onto a plank a little lower than Jessie's. This one, however, was not sturdy and split the instant he touched it. James flailed his arms around to try and grab onto anything else, but nothing else was around him. Time slowed down as he started to fall into the dark pit below.

"James!" Jessie yelled looking down at him.

James closed his eyes and prepared to hit the ground, wherever it might be down there.

His back did hit something, but it wasn't the ground.

It was something soft that made James bounce a little bit before coming to a complete halt. It felt like a balloon with lots of air inside of it. He looked down to see what had caught him.

He wasn't too far off with his balloon theory.

"Weezing!" James exclaimed. The poison type had flown down quickly enough to be able to catch James under him.

"_I got you,"_ he said back with a smile.

Jessie gave a sigh of relief and took her eyes off James and reoriented them to the front of her. All she saw was the tan color of the rock before the half-bridge slammed into it. This sudden change in force caused Jessie to lose her grip on the plank. With nothing to hang onto, she started to fall backwards. She tried to reach out for the bridge to get a grip again, but her hands where just inches away it, causing her to continue to fall backwards.

"No, no, no, no!" Jessie panicked and started to flail her arms just like James had.

Right before her feet slipped off the panel of wood, Jessie suddenly jerked as something had stopped her falling. She looked down to see that a purple tail had coiled itself around her. Looking up, Jessie saw Arbok struggling to counter her weight and pull her up.

"Arbok!" Jessie called out in glee.

"_Hang on, I'll get you up,"_ Arbok grunted as he slowly pulled Jessie up the side of the cliff. After a lot of struggling, the snake finally was able to pull his master onto the solid ground.

Jessie was breathing heavily while James practically fell off Weezing when he was over the dirt. Both of them weren't on the ground for very long, however. Jessie and James both jumped up to hug Arbok and Weezing respectively.

"Thank you Arbok!" Jessie was in tears.

"_I'm just glad you're alright,"_ Arbok said. He lowered his head to Jessie's level while he slithered his tail around and pulled her into a hug. He, too, was crying, so overjoyed that Jessie was alright.

"You're the best Weezing," James said, not showing as much emotion as Jessie, but still feeling as much, if not more.

"_Anything for you,_" Weezing said with a smile.

* * *

"We're too late," Lucy said while she put her binoculars down. Her vantage point from on top of hood of her jeep allowed her to see everything that had just happened. "They've reunited."

"_Now what are we going to do_?" Jake asked. He had his hands behind his head and was resting in the car. "_Should we just attack them? They aren't too powerful. As long as they don't poison us and/or make the ground collapse from under us, I think we can beat them,_" he brought up a point.

"You forget that I'm not in fighting condition," Lucy pointed to one of the burns on her arm. "I was able to do well enough against them yesterday, but they didn't fight back. They certainly will this time."

"_Then what do you suggest we do?_"

"Don't worry," she replied. "I've got a trap in mind.

"_And what is that?"_

"Something that I know they can't resist."

* * *

**Tell me if you thought the chapter was worth the wait or not. Also tell me if you like the new description, or if I should go back to my old one. Thanks for reading! **


	14. A Fiery Vengeance

**Hello and welcome to chapter 14. This one is a bit longer, so I won't keep you.**

* * *

The blowing of the wind made the fire beast's large mane shimmer even more in the sunlight. The red crest on his forehead was a complete contrast to the blue sky and the white clouds behind him. From on top of the stone pillar, the entei could see all across the surrounding area. Looking across the large plains, he still couldn't spot the one he was looking for. She had gone in this direction, he knew that for sure, but he still couldn't find her.

The entei opened his mouth and let out a deafening roar that could be heard from miles around. The cry lasted for a few seconds before dying down. The echo of it lasted for much longer before fading into nothing. Afterwards, the entei jumped off of his pillar and onto the ground below, a drop that would normally hurt or injure regular Pokemon. This entei, however, was not a regular Pokemon. He hit the ground with a loud thud that caused a shockwave to ripple throughout the area, making a flock of pidgey fly away from where they had been scavenging for food.

Afterwards, the entei bent his back legs and went into another seismic jump that carried him to another large, rocky hill high above the ground. He jumped again to another, and then another, continuing to jump around on the high ground, his eyes darting back and forth as he flew through the air. He knew who he was looking for, and he would find her. He would get his revenge on the one who had caused him so much pain.

* * *

"What was that?" Lucy looked up from what she was doing and quickly scanned the area around her.

"_What was what_?" Jake asked while bent over, looking towards his ice type partner.

"That noise. Didn't you hear it just now?"

"_No, I didn't hear anything. What did it sound like?"_ Jake asked.

"I think…it's that entei again," Lucy said slowly, the dread evident on her words.

"_You sure?"_ Jake said surprised. He stood straight up, cracked his back, and walked over to Lucy. "_I don't think I heard anything, let alone that entei. Maybe you're just imagining it._"

"No, I know I'm not," Lucy replied firmly. "I've heard that entei enough in my nightmares to know that it's him."

Jake found this last statement odd, but didn't say anything about it. "_Do you really think he could have followed us here? And what for? We're out of his territory._"

"I don't know…" Lucy trailed off. Of course, this was a lie. She knew exactly why he was chasing her. She didn't think that this was the time to tell Jake that.

"_Just…don't worry about it, alright?" _Jake tried to comfort Lucy.

"Don't worry?" Lucy asked in an upset tone of voice. "Jake, you don't know what that entei's done to me! How can I not worry?"

Jake thought about this for a bit before answering.

"_You're right," _Jake agreed, _"I don't know what he did to you._ _I don't know what that guy's deal is, or why he's intent on attacking you. To be honest, I don't really know what an entei even is. But…"_ Jake paused._ "I do know one thing." _

"And…what's that?" Lucy asked in a much less irritated than before.

"_If that entei does decide to come after you, then he's going to have to get through me first." _Jake said with confidence._ "And then, he's going to be sorry he ever tried to attack you." _

A silence followed what Jake said. Lucy was surprised by this sudden burst of confidence from her electric companion, but, considering some of the other things Jake had said to her in the past few days, she shouldn't have been.

"Yeah…" Lucy replied slowly. She took her eyes off of Jake and looked down to the ground, staring at the small blades of grass that reside there, slowly fluttering in the soft wind. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she inhaled and then exhaled. Opening her eyes, she gave a quick nod and turned away from Jake. She went back over to where she had been and went back to work.

"Come on, let's get these traps set up," she told the ampharos.

"_On it!"_ Jake said back with passion. He ran over to where he had been, and continued to work on his part of the scheme.

While she was working, Lucy thought more about what Jake had said.

_I can tell he means it,_ Lucy thought. _But why? What have I done that would make him want to protect me like that? Maybe… _

Lucy looked up from what she was doing and towards Jake.

…_he's just that kind of guy. _

"H…hey, Jake?" Lucy spoke up after she had thought about it.

"_Hm?_" Jake looked back over to the sneasel. Lucy stood silent for a few seconds before saying anything.

"Th…thanks," she was finally able to get out, and another smile came out with it. This caused Jake to smile too.

"_Anytime,"_ he replied with a nod. Jake turned back and continued to work on their trap.

* * *

The girl was looking longingly outside the window of the car. Because the car was moving fast, all the shrubbery and trees looked like blurs as the car went past them all.

The mother of the girl, who was driving the car, glanced back at her before getting turning her eyes back on the road.

Right before they had started the move to their new house, the girl's Pokemon had been abducted by members of Team Rocket. Officer Jenny hadn't been able to find the people that had taken Scarlett, which forced the two to move without her. The girl, however, was taking it pretty hard. After all, it was her first and only Pokemon that she lost.

The mother had tried to comfort her child, but nothing would really work. It took a lot to convince her that Scarlett was gone for good, and now she still hadn't recovered from it.

"Scarlett…" the small girl whispered as she looked past all the hills and tree, towards the skyline.

"Where are you?"

* * *

Scarlett had never stopped thinking about her trainer. The girl was probably missing her alot right now. Scarlett hoped that she would be able to see her trainer one last time before she was taken to the Team Rocket depot. Then, no matter what else happened, Scarlett would be happy.

A smile formed on the fire type's face when she thought of seeing her trainer again. She did miss her, and while traveling with Jessie, James and Meowth had been fun, no one made her happier than the girl who had taken her from the Pokemon shelter. She had only known her trainer for a few months, but those few months had been the best in her life.

The vulpix's thoughts were immediately interrupted by the feeling of wind on her fur. Shortly after, her cage smashed into the hard ground. The shockwave caused Scarlett's gash to erupt into pain once again. She let out a yelp.

"Careful!" James scolded Jessie, which was followed by a light backhand to her shoulder.

"These cages are slippery! Don't blame me!" Jessie rebutled. James knelt down to Scarlett's level.  
"Are you alright?" he asked. After recovering her breath, Scarlett looked over to her side. The scar hadn't reopened, which was good. The vulpix nodded to show that she was fine.

"That's a relief." James stood up and turned to Jessie. "You need to be more careful. You could have reopened her wound," James scolded.

"I told you, these cages are slippery. It's not my fault," Jessie snapped back.

"Guys, could we save the fight'n for later?" Meowth interjected. "We're kinda still stuck in 'dese cages."

"If you have any bright ideas that we haven't tried yet, then spit them out," Jessie growled.

Team Rocket had tried almost everything that they could think of to try and break open these cages. Arbok's Bite and Weezing's Sludge didn't work, and neither did Victreebel's Razor Leaf. They even tried throwing Meowth's cage at Wobbuffet and had him use Counter. That didn't work either, and all they were left with was a slightly less than amused Meowth.

"There's gotta be a way to open these cages, right?" Meowth proposed "How did the hunters plan on getting us out?"

"That's a good point," James agreed. "We haven't really checked all around the cages yet. Maybe there's a mechanism somewhere on it."

"Let me see," Jessie said. She picked up Scarlett's cage again and ignored James' "Careful." Lifting it above her it, Jessie saw two indentations on the bottom. Both of them looked like half circles. Putting a finger in one and another finger in the other, Jessie twisted the holes. She continued to turn them until she heard a 'pop'.

The top of the cage flew off and hit the ground with a loud 'clank'.

"Well that was easy," Jessie said, a little bit annoyed that they didn't try that before now. She slowly put the cage down. Once it was on the ground, Scarlett slowly climbed out of enclosure, careful to not hurt herself anymore than she needed to.

James went over and did the same thing to Meowth's cage, twisting the contraption and letting the top fly off. Meowth practically jumped out of his cage once it had opened. He landed on the ground and took a deep breath.

"It feels so nice to be out of 'dat," Meowth said as he stretched his arms and legs.

"These cages are really well designed," James admired the cage after Meowth had gotten out of it. "They're made of a metal frame that can't be broken easily, and the only way to open it is on the bottom side of it, ensuring that anyone inside it can't get to it. And, to top it off, the only way to open it is by lifting up the cage and turning the lock mechanism, which very few Pokemon would be able to do, only humans. We could learn a thing or two from the people who made this cage."

"Your point is…?" Jessie asked, already bored by James' rambling.

"Well, we could try something like this when we go back to capture Pikachu after this is done with," James got the the point of his long speech.

Jessie shrugged with an, oh-okay-I-guess-that-works, kind of face. "But right now, we need to get this vulpix to the boss."

"Alright then, let's get back to it. Where did you guys park the balloon?" Meowth asked.

"Well…parked isn't the exact word I would use…" James said slowly. "You see, that ampharos that travels around with Lucy popped our balloon."

Meowth was surprised by this. "Why did he do that?"

"The two of them thought we had found you two. That's how we figured out that you had escaped."

"Is Lucy still burned?" was Meowth's first question.

"I think so, but she was walking fine," James answered the question even though he thought it was a bit wired.

"Good…" Meowth smiled at that news. Jessie looked at Meowth like he was crazy.

"Excuse me? How is that good?" Jessie asked. "She did try and is still trying to capture you, you know. The fact that she's recovering from that large burn that fast is anything but 'good'."

Meowth realized that he hadn't told Jessie or James what he had found out inside the hunter's base.

"Here, I'll tell you guys why on the way back to the balloon," Meowth offered.

"Sounds good," James agreed. He knelt down and picked up Scarlett so she wouldn't have to walk.

"We will be a bit behind schedule because we'll need some time to repair the balloon…again," Jessie brought up. "And with those other two on our trail, we'll need to do it fast. Let's get going."

"Right," James and Meowth agreed in unison.

* * *

"So you're telling us that talking sneasel is the same one from Team Rocket boot camp?" Jessie asked to make sure she had gotten it. She was walking with both her hands behind her head.

"Yup. Hard to believe, isn't it? I didn't even recognize her," Meowth finished explaining.

"Small world," James commented. Scarlett gave a small nod from his arms.

"If that's the case, then why is she trying to capture you?" Jessie asked.

"I'm not quite sure, but I think she might have a big commitment to the boss of the hunters that are after us. She might feel like she needs to repay him for something," Meowth guessed.

"Well, if that's the case," James started, "then we might be able to-"

Before James was able to finish, Jessie took her hand and covered James' mouth with it.

"Shhh." Jessie quieted the two while motioning to be silent with a finger to her mouth. Afterwards, she crouched down and pointed to two small figures in a grassy clearing.

"Do you see what I see?" Jessie asked. James and Meowth joined her in crouching down and looked in front of them.

The two small figures were standing still, barely moving. They were small, red, and definitely a Pokemon.

"Are those what I think 'dey are?" Meowth questioned rhetorically.

They were a bit hard to make out, but with the color and the six tails, it wasn't hard to guess who they were.

"We're in luck," Jessie said in a hushed tone. "Looks like these two vulpix are just waiting for some to capture them."

"Are you sure we should try?" James asked while glancing back at the two foxes. "You know what they say. A pidgey in the hand is worth two in the bush."

"But these aren't pidgey we're talking about, these are vulpix," Jessie said, missing the entire point of the saying. "Can you imagine what the boss would say if we brought him not one, not two, but three vulpix?"

"Well…" James thought about it.

"Stop hesitating. We need to get them before they escape. Meowth, take care of Scarlett," Jessie took Scarlett out of James' hands, to his dismay, and put her in the hands of Meowth, who struggled to carry her because of the size difference, and eventually just put her on the ground.

"I'll get the left one, you get the right one, got it?" Jessie ordered James before running after the one closest to her.

James still didn't like this idea and thought something fishy was up, but decided that he should probably do what Jessie said if he valued his wellbeing.

As Meowth stayed behind, Jessie and James started to sneak towards their targets, who were still staying completely still.

When she was just a few feet away, Jessie dove and grabbed the vulpix so it couldn't get away. James did the same as he jumped and scooped up the second one.

But something was off.

Instead of feeling the soft fur and squishy flesh under his hands like he should have, James instead felt a hard, rough substance. He looked down to see that the thing he had in his hands wasn't a vulpix at all, but instead a wooden cutout painted to look like one.

"These aren't real," James came to the realization a little too late, as they had fallen right into a trap.

"Alright, who thinks that they're so clever?" Jessie yelled as she looked around.

Suddenly, nets came out from nowhere and wrapped around both Jessie and James, trapping them to the ground.

"Hey, who did this!?" Jessie said as she struggled to get free of the net, to no avail.

"Prepare for trouble, we caught you, you filthy crook," an all too familiar voice came from in front of Jessie and James.

"_Make it double, we took a page from your book!_" another voice sounded out. Jessie and James both looked up from their confinement to see a sneasel and an ampharos standing back to back.

"To protect the world from devastation," Lucy said with a grin.

"_To unite all people wi-_" Jake started.

"STOP IT!" Jessie interrupted with her booming voice. "That's our motto!"

"I'll have you two know that we have a copyright on that!" James shouted. "We could sue you for infringement!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Lucy said as she waved them off. "I'm not here for you two." Lucy walked passed Jessie and James and straightforward towards Meowth and Scarlett. "I'm here for _you_ two," she said with one claw pointed at them.

"Forget it!" Meowth exclaimed. He got in front of Scarlett and then unsheathed his claws. "You'll have to beat me first!"

Lucy let out a sigh. She knew this was going to happen. It was inevitable, given Meowth's fiery passion  
"I don't want to hurt you, nor am I in the condition to battle, but I will be forced to fight if you don't surrender."

"Never!" Meowth declared, outstretching his arms, and preparing for a battle.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and stared the cat down. "As you wish," she said in a low tone. "Jake!" Lucy called out without taking her eyes off of Meowth.

"_Eh?"_

"Make sure those two don't escape," she ordered, referring to Jessie and James.

"_Got it!" _Jake hummed back. He of course knew that Lucy wanted to do this herself, so he hadn't planned to get in the way.

Scarlett, knowing that things were going to get serious, decided to back off and watch the battle unfold from the sidelines, prepared to run incase Meowth lost.

Meowth and Lucy were now at a staredown, not unlike the time when they were in the forest right before they were attacked by beedrill. This time, however, it didn't take long for the two to get into combat.

Lucy made the first move. She lunged towards Meowth, her claw extending like a sharply tuned knife, glistening in the sunlight. The attack came in fast, but Meowth jumped just to the left of the attack. He swiped his claws at where Lucy would have been had she not reacted to the attack and ducked. With his other arm, Meowth came in for another Scratch while Lucy was still close, but she evaded that one too by pushing off with one leg and jumping away from the attack.

Once she hit the ground, Lucy stopped her momentum by digging her feet into the soil, kicking up lots of dirt in the process. Her legs felt like they were on fire, but she didn't stop; she couldn't stop. Almost immediately, she ran back towards Meowth and prepared for another attack.

James knew he had to get out of this net and help Meowth out. He unclipped Victreebel's Pokeball from his waist stuck it out of the net.

"Victreebel, use Razor Leaf and get us out of here!" he ordered. Victreebel jumped out of its Pokeball and turned around. It threw two, sharpened leaves towards the net at a speed that would cut almost anything in their way.

Except for this net, apparently.

The leaves hit the net with a clink and then bounced harmlessly off, fluttering to the ground and then becoming still on the ground.

"Well…that's not good…" James thought out loud while scratching his head. Of course they would have accounted for their Pokemon's attacks, why wouldn't they have?

Victreebel, however, had not quite given up yet. It kept chucking Razor Leaves at the net, hoping that one of them would break it.

"Arbok, try using Bite!" Jessie decided that she would try her hand at breaking the nets open. Arbok materialized out of his Pokeball and slithered over to the net containing Jessie. Then, taking in a deep breath, he bit down as hard as he could onto the wire mesh, gnashing his teeth back and forth to try and tear the net open.

That didn't work either, and Arbok just ended up with his teeth hurting.

Jake, of course, knew that neither Arbok nor Victreebel could break open the nets. They were made using the same material as the cages. The only thing that could get them out of there would be fire, because, unlike the cages, the net was not fireproof. But, as far as Jake and Lucy knew, those two did not have any fire types.

Well, except for the vulpix, of course, but Jake was keeping an eye on her. Currently, she was watching the battle Meowth and Lucy were having, distracted and not paying attention to anything going on over where Jake was.

"_In fact…" _ Jake whispered to himself.

Lucy swiped her claws to try and cut Meowth, but he dodged to the side again. Meowth tried to hit Lucy in the chest while she was still recovering from her missed attack, but she bent backwards and let the attack fly over her. Lucy countered by straightening back and, before Meowth had a chance to react, gave him a quick punch in the stomach, which caused the cat to recoil.

Scarlett had been watching the battle from a safe distance. It didn't look good for Meowth. It was obvious that Lucy knew what she was doing, and Meowth was having a hard time keeping up with her speed.

The vulpix had been so entranced by the battle, she didn't notice the shadow that was encroaching upon her until it was too late. She turned around just in time to see two large, yellow hands reach down and grab her.

"_Gotcha!_" Jake announced, quite proud of himself that he was able to sneak up on her, even if it wasn't that big of a deal.

"_Hey, let me go!" _Scarlett squirmed to get out of the ampharos' grasp, but wasn't able to as the electric type held on tight. Eventually, Scarlett blew out a small flame that made contact with Jake's arm.

"_Ow- hey!'_ Jake grunted before hitting Scarlett in her scar, causing her to once again yelp in pain. _"Do that again, and I'll reopen that wound_," Jake warned. Scarlett didn't try anything else after that.

Of course, Jake didn't want to hurt her, nor would he ever want to reopen her wound, but, Jake needed someway to keep her from fighting back.

Meowth staggered back as he was hit in the head again by Lucy. This time, thought, he struggled to shrug the attack off. His vision was blurry and his knees felt weak. This fight was a lot different than the ones they had back at the Team Rocket Training Camp. Lucy had gotten so much better at fighting since then, that Meowth was having trouble landing any kind of hit on her, while almost every attack from her hit their mark. Even with severe burns on her body, Lucy was ten times better than she was three years ago.

Now that Jake had Scarlett-who was the only one who could break open Jessie and James' nets-and Lucy was very much winning against Meowth, everything seemed to be going their way.

That was, until a very loud stomp of someone hitting the ground really hard came from behind everyone, followed by an even louder roar.

Jessie and James were the first two to look behind them to see who had made that yell. Arbok and Victreebel followed their masters and joined them in staring at the large beast.

Meowth and Jake slowly turned their heads, knowing exactly who had interrupted their skirmish. Lucy was the only one who was now not staring at the beast.

Lucy's eyes were closed, and she didn't dare open them. She was afraid this would happen, scared even. But, it wasn't something she could avoid, no matter how much she tried to. The sneasel was shivering out of fear and her breathing was becoming rigid, a very different stance than the one she had when she was battling Meowth.

"No…" Lucy said in a hushed tone. "Why is it you? Why is it always you!?"

* * *

**Uh-oh. Guess who's back!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	15. Heating Up

**Huh? What's that? Hakuhunter uploaded chapter 15 of To the Stars Above? Wow, next thing you know Half Life 3 is going to come out. **

**I thank you all for your patience. I finally got around to writing this. I'm hesitant to say that I've gotten back into the writing kick, because last time I said that I was wrong. But, with a little luck, I'll be uploading these a lot more often, not that I have many more chapters to write. **

**Hope you enjoy**

* * *

The entei let out another deafening roar which caused everyone in the clearing to cover their ears. Even after the entei had closed his mouth and had stopped shouting, the roar still lingered for some time before finally fading.

"Not you again!" Jessie yelled from her confinement on the ground. "What's your deal? Stop following us!"

The entei ignored Jessie's rambling and instead looked around the clearing for his target. Eventually, his eyes laid upon the sneasel in the middle of everyone, her eyes closed, her head to the ground.

Opening his mouth, the Entei prepared to shoot a Flamethrower right at her and waste no time. Right before he was able to release it, a crackling sound came from the entei's right. He looked over and was hit by a Thunderbolt before he could react. The electricity shocked him and caused the Flamethrower to fizzle in his mouth. After the attack had ended, the entei quickly shook it off and then looked to see where it had come from.

Jake ran over and stood in front of Lucy, ready to fight. Jake had already put Scarlett down on the ground before shooting the Thunderbolt, so his arms were free.

"_No way! I wouldn't let Lucy get hurt again," _Jake yelled at the fire beast. The entei decided that he would deal with this pesky ampharos before dealing with Lucy, seeing how she was completely immobile. He prepared another Flamethrower, but this time shot it at Jake. The ampharos responded by again launching a Thunderbolt. The two attacks collided, making a large explosion in the middle of the clearing.

Meowth had been so distracted by the entei appearing out of nowhere, that he had almost forgotten about Lucy. He turned around to find that she was still in the spot since the entei had arrived. She was standing there, shaking, her eyes closed, whispering something to herself.

Looking back to make sure that the entei wasn't targeting him, Meowth ran over to Lucy.

"Hey, Lucy, you alright?" he asked. She didn't respond, so Meowth put his paw on her shoulder and shook her. "Lucy, snap out of it, will ya?"

Eventually, Lucy slowly lifted her head and opened her eyes.

"Meowth…" she said in a voice that was barely audible.

"Lucy!" Meowth shouted.

"Meowth…" she repeated. "Don't…let him…get me…" Lucy whispered.

"Don't you worry. I'll get you out of 'ere," Meowth said. He looked back once more to see what the entei was doing. He was still distracted by Jake; every single attack the entei would throw at him, the ampharos would counter by launching electricity at it, which in turn would cause more explosions. It was obvious, however, that all the attacking was taking a piece out of Jake. He would only be able to keep up the stalemate for so long.

"Alright, follow me," Meowth ordered. He took Lucy's hand and started to pull her in the direction away from the entei and out of the clearing. Lucy didn't fight back and was slowly pulled by Meowth. The two trotted out of the clearing and into the dense forest that surrounded it.

Meowth's hope was that they could lose the entei in the sea of trees. He looked behind him once more to see if the entei was following them. He saw the entei, still locked in his intense battle with Jake.

_Good. He won't notice until we're gone, _Meowth thought.

But as he was looking back into the clearing, he also saw Jessie and James, still pinned to the ground in their nets. Meowth was so focus on getting Lucy away from the entei that he forgot that his best friends were still in danger.

_I can't just leave them there, _Meowth thought. _I've got to help them. _

Meowth knew that he couldn't just leave Lucy out in the open. He looked around for a tree that looked thick enough to hide her. Once he found one, Meowth pulled Lucy over to the tree and put her behind it, out of sight from the entei.

"I'm going back to help Jessie and James. Stay here, alright?" Meowth told her. Lucy responded with a small nod.

With that affirmation, Meowth ran back into the clearing. Jake and the entei were still locked in their battle, though it was obvious that Jake was slowly losing energy as his attacks came slower and slower. He was breathing heavily and the light on his tail was slowly growing dimmer. The entei, however, showed no signs of giving up any time soon.

_We need to get out of here fast, _Meowth thought. _Jake's not going to be able to keep this up much longer. _

After he thought this, he started to run over to where his teammates lay on the ground.

Scarlett was now just watching the battle unfold on the sideline, unsure of what to do. She felt like helping, but she didn't know how she could. Jake was now really struggling to keep the entei at bay, and it wouldn't be long before he couldn't anymore. After that, who knew what the entei will do. It might go after Lucy, it might go after Jessie and James…

It might go after her.

Scarlett turned her head around and looked at all the trees and brushes of the forest behind her. If she wanted to, she could just run away right now while all this panic was going on, and disappear in the forest. By the time anyone noticed her absence, she would be long gone. It was like the door of escape was right behind her, wide open. She could run through it and be free from Team Rocket, be free from the entei, be free from Pokemon hunters, and be free from all the trouble that those things caused.

The door was open to her.

But she didn't walk through the door. She didn't know why she wasn't running away, but Scarlett just felt like it wasn't the right thing to do.

Scarlett had made up her mind. Instead of walking through the door, she did the exact opposite and closed the door.

Scarlett looked back around to the clearing and saw Jessie and James still struggling in their nets, unable to escape from their grasps. Summoning the courage to go nearer to the entei, Scarlett ran back into the fray.

Avoiding the line of fire between Jake and the entei, Meowth ran over to Jessie's net. Arbok was still out of it, just staring at the net, feeling powerless because he couldn't do anything. Wobbuffet had also popped out of his Pokeball, but he couldn't do anything either. He joined Arbok in gazing at the net in desperation.

"Meowth, get me out of this, now!" Jessie demanded while still struggling to get out.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked. "If Arbok and Wobbuffet can't break this net, how would I be able to."

"_Wobbuffet!"_

"I don't care how you do it, just do it!" Jessie yelled out of anger.

Meowth didn't think he could do anything, but he did it anyway.

"Alright then, here goes." Meowth unsheathed his claws and let out a series of Fury Swipes on the net. As expected, his claws glanced right off, not doing anything to the net.

"I told you it wouldn't work!" Meowth yelled.

"You're not trying hard enough!" Jessie shouted back.

"Oh really?!" Meowth barked. "Then how about you do it bett-"

"_Let me try,_" a voice interrupted Meowth mid sentence. The cat turned around to see Scarlett walking up to the net.

"Scarlett?" Meowth said in surprised. The vulpix didn't answer, but instead approached the net. She blew a small flame out of her mouth which started to burn through the net.

"Great idea Scarlett," Jessie complemented. She didn't respond, but continued to singe through the rope.

Knowing that this was going to take a bit, Meowth looked behind him to see how Jake was fairing. The entei had just launched another Flamethrower, and Jake fired back at him another Thunderbolt, which caused another explosion.

Afterwards, however, Jake fell down on to one knee, too exhausted to continue one with this stall battle. Meowth looked up at the entei. He was getting ready to fire one last Flamethrower to finish the battle. Meowth's face turned to one of determination.

In a stroke of courage, Meowth looked up at the entei and yelled, "Hey! Fire Breath!"

The entei stopped charging his flamethrower and looked over in Meowth's direction.

Meowth ran away from the net and yelled again, "I bet you can't catch me!" in the most annoying voice he could do.

The entei looked back at Jake. He was still kneeling, and not moving, so the entei decided that he was no longer a threat and turned his head back to Meowth. The entei launched a flamethrower at Meowth just like he had with Jake. The spirling fire came towards the cat at a fast speed, but Meowth was still able to dodge to the side of it.

_I just need to buy enough time._ Meowth thought. He looked over to Jessie's net and saw that Scarlett had burned through one of the ropes and was now working on a second one in order to make a big enough hole to let Jessie escape.

Meowth turned back to the entei just in time to see him breathe another flamethrower at him. Meowth barely dodged it, only slightly dodging to the left of the fiery pillar, while getting slightly singed in the process. The surprise attack caused Meowth to become unbalanced. After dodging the Flamethrower Meowth tripped on himself and fell to the ground. His arms weren't fast enough to catch him so he smashed into the rough ground with his shoulder. Meowth grunted at the surprise pain.

Meowth quickly looked up from his spot on the ground and saw the entei ready yet another Flamethrower.

"Doesn't 'dis guy ever give up?" Meowth whispered to himself. Ignoring the sharp pain in his shoulder, Meowth scrambled to his feet and looked around for some cover he could use from the entei. Thinking quickly, Meowth tumbled behind a tree that was at the side of the clearing. He got in the cover of the tree just as a Flamethrower whizzed past him and into the forest, causing a random tree to burst into flames.

Meowth put the paw of his uninjured arm up to his hurt shoulder. Instantly he felt something warm and sticky on his fur. Taking his hand off, Meowth saw that his shoulder and hand were both a crimson red color.

_Great_, Meowth thought. He put his paw back on his shoulder and tried to ignore the pain.

Meowth peeked out from behind his cover to quickly check on how Jessie and Scarlett were doing. Scarlett had already burned a hole through Jessie's net that allowed her to escape. After Jessie had returned Arbok and Wobbuffet to their Pokeballs, she and Scarlett ran over to James' net to get him out of there.

That was all Meowth was able to see before he had to duck his head back behind the tree to avoid the entei's next attack. The Flamethrower collided with the wood that Meowth was hiding behind, and instantly Meowth felt the heat from it. He closed his eyes and hoped that the fire wouldn't be able to burn right through the tree.

After a few seconds, the heat mostly subsided. Meowth looked behind him to see the condition of the tree. It was still standing, but almost all of it was on fire, and it was spreading fast.

_This tree isn't going to last another attack, _Meowth thought. _I need to find some better cover. _

Meowth looked to his left and saw an oddly shaped rock only a few meters away from his current position.

_That will have to do,_ Meowth thought.

Quickly, taking advantage of the time the entei was taking to charge his flamethrower, Meowth ran out from behind the burning tree to the stone.

However, Meowth didn't take three steps before he tripped on a small rock that he hadn't seen beforehand. This time, Meowth took both of his arms and had them take the force of the ground, catching himself before he hit the ground.

But it didn't matter. The entei had finished charging up his Flamethrower and was about to launch it at Meowth.

There was no way Meowth could dodge this or run for cover now, so he closed his eyes and hoped that the fire wouldn't hurt too much.

While his eyes were closed, Meowth heard a crackling sound fill the air that he had instinctively associated with a Thunderbolt. Right afterwards, Meowth heard a howl of pain from the entei. He opened his eyes to see the entei was being electrocuted by Jake. Meowth took this opportunity to get up off the ground and, with his hand on his shoulder, run towards the center of the clearing, where Jessie, James, and Scarlett were.

"Meowth, are you alright?" James asked when he saw his wound. He had just been freed from his net and was now returning Victreebel to its pokeball.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Meowth assured them. "Come on, let's get out of here!"  
"Agreed," Jessie and James said in almost perfect sync, both of them also nodding at the same time. Jessie was the first one to start running out of the clearing. James first scooped up Scarlett in his arms and then ran after Jessie. Meowth, who was running a lot slower than them, was bringing up the rear.

Jessie and James ran past Jake, not paying him much mind. Meowth, however, stopped by the ampharos. He was still shocking the entei to give everyone time to leave the clearing.

"Hey, 'danks for saving me," Meowth chimed in as Jake stopped his Thunderbolt.

"_Don't mention it,_" Jake replied. He put his hands on his knees and quickly caught his breath. "_Where's Lucy?_"

"Oh 'dat's right, Lucy!" Meowth couldn't believe he had almost forgotten about her. "I left her behind a tree just a small ways outside of the clearing." Meowth pointed to the tree.

"_Come on, we need to get her out of here before the entei recovers from my thunderbolt_," Jake said, clearly still very tired from all the fighting he had to do.

"Meowth, what are you doing?" Jessie called out. She was standing at the edge of the forest. James had already run ahead of her and kept running through the forest. "Do you plan on just standing there until the entei gets it's senses back?"

Meowth glanced at the tree Lucy was behind, and then back at Jessie.

"I'll catch up to you," he said with confidence. "Go on ahead!" After this, Meowth turned around and ran towards Lucy, with Jake following behind him.

Jessie rolled her eyes and whispered, "Crazy cat," before running after to James to catch up with him.

Both Meowth and Jake knew that their time was short, so they ran over to Lucy as fast as they could. Indeed, Lucy was still standing there, still mumbling to herself. It did look, however, as if she had calmed down a little bit.

"Lucy, we need to go now." Meowth almost demanded, not sure how she would respond in her dazed state. "We don't have much time," he iterated.

"O-okay…," is all that Lucy said as a reply. Meowth took the paw off his shoulder and grabbed Lucy's arm, hoping that she wouldn't care too much about the blood. He then started to run in the direction that Jessie and James had gone. Lucy stumbled a little because of Meowth's sudden yank, but eventually got her balance and was able to get into a steady stride. Jake, who was still exhausted from earlier and couldn't run as fast, kept up a little ways behind the other two.

The entei had now recovered from the long thunderbolt that had hit him. It didn't hurt that much, but it certainly did shock him a bit. He looked around the clearing, expecting to find everyone still there. What he did find, was that it was empty. Looking around, the entei saw the meowth and ampharos running through the woods away from the clearing, and Lucy was with them.

Giving chase, the entei ran towards them to try and catch up.

Meowth and Lucy were now ducking and dodging around the dense forest. They were weaving around wild trees and bushes left and right. Meowth heard a mighty roar from behind them, and he knew that their time was up. Daring to look back, Meowth saw that the entei had recovered from Jake's Thunderbolt and was now making his way through the trees to get to them. Thankfully, his large size was hindering his mobility, as he was having trouble getting through some of the more densely packed trees.

Meowth turned his head back around just in time to see another tree that he was about to hit. Meowth dodged to the right of it and Lucy followed, almost getting hit herself.

Eventually, the entei got tired of trying to catch up to them. Stopping in his tracks, the entei opened his mouth and let out a Flamethrower that made a crackling sound as it flew through the air. Jake dodged just to the right of it while Meowth and Lucy both ran in front of a tree that took the Flamethrower for them, albeit not very well. The tree burst into flames and shot embers out all around it, which in turn caused even more fires to start.

"_If the entei keeps this up, he'll start a forest fire,_" Jake yelled as he caught up to Meowth and Lucy and started to keep pace with them.

"Let's just hope we're out of here by then," Meowth replied. He looked back again to see how close the entei was. Because it stopped moving when he fired the Flamethrower, the entei was now far back enough that Meowth was no longer worried about the entei catching up.

"Looks like we're in the clear," Meowth said, hoping he hadn't just jinxed them.

Just then, Lucy fell to the ground abruptly, which caused Meowth to stumble and stop in his tracks as well. Jake ran a little ahead before he realized what was happening. He slowing to a stop before running back to Lucy's side.

"Lucy, what's the matter?!" Meowth asked frantically.

"I…can't…" was all that Lucy was able to say. Her breathing was heavy and she was clearly tired, both mentally and physically.

Meowth looked back and saw that the entei was fast gaining on them since they were no longer moving.

"Just…go on…without me," Lucy said in between breaths.

"No chance!" Meowth yelled. "We're not leaving you!

"_Here, let me carry you,_" Jake offered. Before Lucy was able to respond, Jake picked her up by putting one of his arms under her knees and the other under her neck.

Meowth looked back at the entei and saw that he was now only a 10 meters away and quickly closing in.

"We've gotta keep movin!" Meowth yelled before turning around and continuing to run away from the entei. Jake hoisted Lucy's weight up and then ran after Meowth.

Since he was much closer now, the entei decided to stop and try to shoot another Flamethrower. Opening his mouth, the fire beast unleashed yet another spiral of flame.

Meowth glanced back to see the Flamethrower coming straight at him. Quickly, the cat fell to the ground and covered his head, which let the Flamethrower fly right over him, while Jake had simply moved to the right a bit to avoid it entirely.

"Meowth! Over here!" Jessie's voice came from Meowth's left. He turned his head to see her peeking out of a small cave entrance. Meowth nodded, got up, and ran over to the entrance, with Jake right behind him. The hole was just large enough that Jessie and James could fit through, as well as Meowth and Jake, but just small enough that the entei wouldn't be able too. Acting fast, Meowth crawled through the hole and was safe from the entei.

Jake ran up to the hole, but soon realized that he was slightly too large for it because he was also carrying Lucy. This meant that he would have to squeeze his way through. Jake held Lucy as close to his body as he could and tried to make them as small as possible. After that, he started to squirm his way through the hole. He looked behind him to see that entei had caught up with them. Instead of launching a Flamethrower, which would have taken too long, the entei decided to charge straight at Jake. The ampharos only had a little bit of time if he didn't want to be slammed by the entei.

Turning back around, Jake continued to press against the hard rock, working his way into the cave. His back was scraping up against the sharp ridges of the stone, but that was the least of his concern right now. Eventually, after a lot of energy, Jake was able to force his way through the gap in the nick of time, just before the entei crashed his head into the rock where Jake had been standing.

Everyone had made it inside the cave, and they were all safe from the entei.

For now.

Currently, the part of the cave that they were in was very narrow, only being a few meters wide. The cave continued on deeper and deeper until it got too dark and they couldn't see down the corridor of stone any farther.

A few seconds passed before anyone spoke. Everyone just concentrated on catching their breath.

"Is…is it gone?" James asked out loud. He went to the center of the cave and bent down to be able to see clearly outside of the hole. Jessie, however, already knew that it was far from gone. Thinking fast, she predicted what the entei was going to do next.

"Get back!" she yelled before pulling James by the collar and shoving him against the cave wall. Just after, a stream of fire came barreling through the hole and into the cave. Meowth and Jake backed up as far as they could against the wall as well. The Flamethrower illuminated the dark cave for just a second before it passed and died out.

A few more seconds of silence passed before anyone spoke.

"I'd take that as a no," Jessie sassed.

James breathed out a sigh of relief. "That was close. Thanks, Jess."

"Well, you need to be more careful!" Jessie said while giving James a slight flick of her hand. "If I hadn't pulled you back, Scarlett could have been injured!" she exclaimed before taking the vulpix out of James' possession. "But it's alright. You're safe now," she continued while petting Scarlett.

James opened his mouth to say something, but decided not to. Instead, he just shook his head, bearing a slight smile. He took a seat on the cold, hard, rocky floor, tired from all the running as he was. He made sure to stay as close to the wall as possible, just in case the entei tried that fire trick again. Jessie went and joined James in sitting down, continuing to pet Scarlett.

"_Hey, Lucy, you alright?_" Jake asked the sneasel in his arms. She didn't answer. Her eyes were closed and her breathing had slowed.

_She must have fainted while we were running, _Jake thought. _Poor girl._

"Is she alright?" Meowth asked.

"_Yeah, she's fine. She's just going to need some rest." _Jake replied. Slowly, Jake laid Lucy's head down on a smooth rock to let her get some sleep. Afterwards, Jake decided to also take a seat on the ground. He brighten his tail and used it as a light source to brighten up the cave.

Meowth leaned a little bit closer to the middle of the cave to peek out of the hole. As he had feared, the entei was still there, just laying on the ground, waiting for them to come out.

"Looks like we're not going back out 'dat way," Meowth commented while getting back to the safety of the cave wall. Suddenly, Meowth shoulder flared up with pain again. He put his paw up against it. The adrenalin from all the running must have worn out, so the pain in his shoulder had come back.

"Meowth, are you sure you're alright?" James asked from the other side of the cave.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've had worse," Meowth assured him.

"You know…" Jessie spoke up to get everyone's attention. Jake and Meowth turned their heads towards her to hear what she had to say. "As much as I hate to admit it," she continued, "I think that we need to hold a cease fire until we've dealt with this entei problem," she told Jake.

"_Agreed," _Jake said with a nod.

"Now then, with that out of the way, we need to find a way out of here and around that entei," Jessie kept talking aloud.

"So, do you have a plan?" James asked.

"I do," Jessie replied. She passed Scarlett onto James' lap before standing up. "It's a bit complicated, so listen close."

* * *

The boss was sitting at his desk and stroking his mustache, which is what he usually does when he is thinking. Today had been an interesting day at the base. When he had gotten back yesterday, most of his grunts were in a panic over the Team Rocket agents being able to infiltrate and steal half of their Pokemon. It took him an entire day to calm everyone down.

It still wasn't good that they were down half their Pokemon. A Pokemon hunter's enterprise didn't just rely on humans. He needed Pokemon for the backbone of their operations. They would need to recruit some more as soon as they could if they wanted to recover.

Thinking about yesterday made the boss think about Lucy. She hadn't checked in for some time. The boss was sure she was alright, but he wanted to make sure anyway. He pushed the button on his earpiece.

"Hello, Lucy, come in," He said in an affirmative voice.

Nothing.

Just silence.

"Lucy, are you there?" he continued.

Still nothing.

Still just silence.

The boss took his finger off the earpiece. He hoped that something bad hadn't happen to Lucy. She was his best agent, and it would be a shame to lose her. He might have to send out a rescue party to find her, which would be a pain to set up with their current situation. He would wait just a little longer before he did that. It was entirely possible that Lucy was just in the middle of something and couldn't answer him.

The boss was about to try again before the man in the beanie once again swung open his doors.

"Sir, we have two Pokemon who are fighting in the barracks, and we aren't able to stop them!"

"Really?" the boss asked with curiosity. "Do you know what started it?" the boss asked, staying a lot more calm than the other guy.

"Not exactly, but we think it might have been because of yesterday."

"Hmmm…" was all the boss said. This was, of course, a problem for many reasons. For one, if the Pokemon were not stopped, they could cause damage to not only the base, but also the crewmembers. On top of that, the boss couldn't just let two Pokemon get away with fighting. If they did that, then the other Pokemon would just think that they could do it too, which will cause more fights.

He needed to show them who's the boss around here.

The boss got up from his seat and opened one of his desk drawers. He took something shiny out and put it in his suit, but the guy in the beanie didn't see what it was. The man stepped aside while the boss walked to and through the double doors. The man then walked behind him.

The two of them walked through the base at a rather quick pace so that they could get to the barracks before any more damage was done. All of the grunts in the hallways stopped to salute the boss as he walked by. It wasn't a thing that was mandatory, nor did the boss really care about it, but it was still a sign of respect, and all the grunts did it anyway. Afterwards, they went back to whatever they were doing beforehand as if nothing had happened.

The barracks was in complete disarray. The two Pokemon that were fighting was an ursaring and a vileplume. They had already knocked over many of the beds and lockers that were around the room in their brawl, and many holes in the wall marked where they had slammed each other into it.

Most of the grunts were standing far back from the fight in a circle around it. Only the very brave ones tried to break up the fight, but all of them ended up with large bruises or smashed up against the wall.

A few of them both.

As the boss entered the room, the ursaring used Slash on the vileplume. The grass type blocked it with its large petals, and then countered with a Hyper Beam that shot out from the middle of its flower.

The Hyper Beam made direct contact with the ursaring, which caused it to fly back and slam against the wall, creating yet another dent. The ursaring, however, was far from beaten. It got up off the ground quickly and returned to the center of the room to continue the battle.

When the grunts saw the boss, they made a pathway for him to the middle of the circle.

The barracks was in an uproar. The ursaring and vileplume were both yelling at each other while they fought, lots the grunts were screaming out of fear, and other grunts were chanting out "Fight!" over and over again.

Through all this noise, a 'click' sound rang out. It wasn't that loud compared to all the yelling that was going on, but everyone heard it, and everyone-including the Pokemon-became very quiet and the room became silent.

The boss had in his hands a silver revolver of sorts. He had already cocked it and he was now aiming it with one hand right at the two Pokemon.

"I suggest you two stop fighting if you don't want to end up on the ground," the boss said with his intimidating voice.

For a second, the ursaring and vileplume didn't move. Slowly, both of the Pokemon lowered their fighting stances. They each eyed the boss very wearily. They dared not move while the gun was pointed at them.

"Good. I trust that this will not happen again?" the boss asked. Both of the Pokemon nodded their heads slowly.

"Right," the boss said with confidence. He put the revolver back into his jacket and then announced, "As you were," to everyone in the room. Afterwards, he left the barracks, with the man in the beanie following behind him.

The room was silent after the boss left. After a bit, some of the grunts started to clean up the mess the two Pokemon had made, while others just left the room entirely, going on to do whatever around the base.

The ursaring and vileplume gave each other one more mean look before walking off in separate directions.

"Wow, I'd hate to get on the wrong side of our boss," one of the random grunts said to another one. He was picking up one of the beds that had been flipped over.

"Yeah, me too," the other one agreed. "Me too."

* * *

**Thanks for reading. **


	16. Embers in the wind

**Happy second day of winter y'all, (or summer if your southern hemispherely inclined). Welcome to chapter 16. This one's another long one, but it's just the calm before the storm, as I can see the next chapter being even longer than this one. We'll just have to see. Anyway, enjoy. **

* * *

A loud, blaring beeping noise is what woke up Sneasel.

"_Ug, morning already?_" She said in her just-waking-up-from-an-alarm-clock voice. In her sleepiness, she tried to scramble out of bed, but her foot got caught on the side of the bed frame, which caused her to trip and crash into the floor.

"_Ow…_" Sneasel moaned as she rubbed her banged head. The alarm was still going off, and it was now getting very annoying. Sneasel stood back up and walked over to the other side of the room where her alarm clock was. She hit the button on top which caused the clock to stop its obnoxious beeping. She breathed a sigh after all this was done.

"_What a way to wake up_," she muttered to herself.

Sneasel didn't usually use her alarm clock, as she woke up just fine on her own most days. When she did use it, she always put it on the other side of her room so she would have to get up turn it off. This prevented her from falling back asleep in her bed.

Today she used it because it was a very special day, and she need to wake up early.

Sneasel took another deep breath and thought about what she needed to do today. She glanced over at a calendar that hung on her wall. Today, June the 13th, was circled in red.

"Today's the day," Sneasel said to herself in human. "I've been waiting for this for a l-_sn_-g time." Sneasel struggled through some of the words. She still wasn't the best at speaking human, but it would have to do.

"I'll go up to Meowth and talk to him in human, which will impress him enough that he'll have to take me along with them," Sneasel went over the plan out loud. With an affirmative nod, she picked up her backpack that was stuffed in the corner of her room. It had all of her equipment in it, and everything she would need to go with Meowth and his friends.

She walked over to the door of her room and reached up to the handle. She opened it with a twist of her wrist. The door creaked open, and Sneasel stepped out into the hallway the it led to.

Once she had open the door, a note fell down from the other side's handle. It was placed there specifically so that it would fall off when the door was opened. The note fluttered to the floor and rested there peacefully.

Sneasel was a little confused as to why someone would leave a note on her door. Shifting the weight of the backpack, Sneasel bent down and picked up the note. On it was a few paragraphs written on it in english. While learning to read, Sneasel had also learned to read, so she started from the top of the note

This is what it read.

_Dear Sneasel,_

_As I don't believe that you'll be able to read this, I hope that you'll have someone else read it too you. James is writing this for me, as I am, of course, not able to. _

_First things first, I want to apologize. I lied to you when I told you the time we were leaving for our first mission. By the time you're reading this letter, we will already be far gone. I'm sorry, but it was the only way. I didn't want you to get mixed up with Team Rocket, and I didn't want want you to travel around with us and become evil like us. You deserve a better life than this. _

_I'm sorry, but it was the only way._

_Best Wishes,_

_Meowth_

The first time Sneasel read the letter, she couldn't believe what was written. She had to read it again to make sure she wasn't imagining it.

No, the letter was quite clear. Meowth had lied to her about when their were leaving so that she couldn't go with them.

It took a little bit for the letter to settle in to her, but once it did, Sneasel bolted away from her room and ran towards the door that led to the outside of the barracks, letting the paper slowly float to the ground again.

_No, this can't be happening. _Sneasel thought to herself. She threw her backpack on the ground so she could run faster. Afterall, if Meowth had already left, she wouldn't be needing it.

She sprinted outside into the morning air and immediately took a sharp left. She was heading to the strip of the base that all the vehicles were place, Meowth's hot air balloon included. That is, if it was still here.

"_Meowth!_" she cried out of desperation, hoping that they hadn't left just yet. She was breathing heavily as she ran as fast as she had ever done before in her life.

"_Meowth!_" she cried out again. Team Rocket grunts were watching her in confusion as Sneasel ran past them all. She however, was not paying them any mind.

In no time, Sneasel was at the section of the base that housed all of Team Rocket's air-based vehicles. A large strip of concrete held all the airplanes and other air vehicles. A large building that acted as the entrance to the airbase was in the center of everything. Yesterday, Meowth's balloon was parked behind the building. She ran around the corner and hoped with everything she had that it was still there.

…

…

It wasn't.

…

…

It was gone.

Meowth had already left.

She was too late.

Sneasel didn't know what to do. It took her a few seconds to even get over the fact that he was really gone.

"_M…meowth,_" she whispered to herself. Sneasel fell to her knees. "No, it can't be…" she repeated to herself. She lifted her head to the sky and screamed out of desperation.

"_MEOWTH!_"

* * *

"_Lucy! Wake up!_"

Lucy awoke up to someone yelling at her and shaking her. She jumped up from her laying position and looked around.

From her initial examination, Lucy figured that she was in a cave of sorts. A little bit of light was coming from a small hole to the outside, and some more was coming from something next to her. Deeper inside the cave was completely black.

"_Lucy, are you alright?_" Jake, who had been sitting next to Lucy, asked. The tip of his tail was glowing brightly, which was lighting up the whole cave.

"Yeah, I'm good," Lucy responded. She put a hand up to her head to ease her headache that appeared all the sudden.

"_You were screaming out Meowth's name in your sleep. Are you sure you're alright?_"

"Yeah I'm…" she paused to take a breath, "...fine."

Jake decided not to press it anymore. "_Well, I'm just glad you're awake."_

Lucy took another look around. "Where are we?" she asked.

"_We ducked into this cave to get away from the entei," _Jake explained.

Just then, all the memories of the running away from the entei came back to her. Lucy looked behind her and through the hole in the cave. "He's still out there, isn't he?" she asked, mostly to herself.

"_Yeah, he is," _Jake replied, not knowing what else to say.

"We're safe in here though, right?" Lucy asked to make sure.

"_As long as you stay away from the middle, yes._"

Lucy put her hand to her head again, her headache getting worse. "The last thing I remember is falling to the ground while he was chasing us," Lucy recalled. "How did I end up here?"

"_Since you wouldn't move, I picked you up and carried you here," _Jake said like it was no big deal.

"You…carried me here?" Lucy was surprised.

"_Sure. I wasn't going to just let that entei get you._"

"But, with me, you would have run so much slower, and the entei could have caught up to us. You could have been killed along with me!"

"_Well, true, but we're both here and alive, so everything worked out fine."_

"Right," Lucy agreed with a nod. "That's the most important thing." Lucy took another look around the cave. "Hang on, where's Team Rocket?" Lucy asked, now just realizing that they were no longer with them.

"_They went to find another way out so they could go and fix their balloon." _Jake explained. "_See, while you were out, we made a deal. Since the entei is going to be waiting here, distracted by you, they were going to patch up the balloon without the entei following them. They'll come back for us once it's done, and we'll get away without the entei knowing."_

Lucy didn't reply but nodded to show she acknowledged what he had said. Her eyes went down to the ground as she thought about the situation she was in.

"_How are your burns_?" Jake asked, concerned that Lucy might not be doing well.

"They're fine," Lucy replied simply, not moving her eyes. Jake tilted his head a little.

"_Are you alright?_" Jake asked.

Lucy sighed before answering. "Do you think he'll ever stop?"

"_What?_"

"The entei," Lucy reiterized, "Do you think he'll ever stop following me? Trying to kill me?"

Jake didn't know how to respond to this. He didn't know the answer.

"_I don't know_," he replied honestly. He felt like he couldn't say anything else.

"Me neither," Lucy said in a voice that showed how hopeless she was. She didn't know when this torment would end. Would she have to live her whole life in fear of death as the entei always followed her? Was that her fate?

"_No,_" Jake said randomly. Lucy lifted her head up slightly at this comment.

"What?" she asked, confused by what he meant.

"_No," _he repeated. "_I don't buy it."_

"Don't buy what?" Lucy asked, now very perplexed by Jake.

"_The Lucy I know would never be afraid of anything. No matter what it is, the Lucy I know wouldn't back down. The Lucy that came and recruited me to the Pokemon hunters was fearless, and wouldn't be afraid of anything, let alone some entei."_

Lucy was stunned by this.

"You…really think so?" the words slowly came out of her mouth.

"_No," _Jake looked Lucy in the eyes. "_I know so." _

At first, Lucy didn't say anything. She didn't know how to reply to this.

"I…" Lucy started, but stopped to think it over. She took a deep breath before continuing. "You're right," she finally said with an affirmative nod. "I can't be afraid of this entei. I can't just live my life in fear. To do that would be pointless. I need to keep moving forward. Thanks for making me realize that."

"_Anytime_," Jake responded.

The cave was silent for the next few minutes. Neither one of the two Pokemon talked, both of them thinking about different things. Lucy slowly stroked the feather on her head while she was thinking while Jake swished his tail back and forth, watching how the light danced across the cave walls.

"Hey, Jake," it was Lucy who broke the silence. Her voice was soft.

"_Yeah?_" Jake responded, but continued to watch the light spectacle on the wall.

"You…um…" Lucy didn't know how to say this. "Earlier, you asked me why that entei was chasing me."

Jake nodded, stopping his tail waving and completely focused on Lucy.

"Well, I…think you should know what happened," Lucy finally got out. It was obviously very hard for her to talk about it.

"_Oh, no, Lucy, you don't have to,_" Jake responded, knowing how touchy her past was.

"No, it's fine," Lucy reassured him. "I think that, after all you've done for me, it's only fair."

Jake nodded, showing that he understood her. Lucy took a long deep breath and closed her eyes. She didn't move for a while. She breathed out and continued concentrated without saying anything. This also went on for a bit. Eventually, Lucy opened her eyes again and started to talk.

"It was about a year ago," she started. She put both of her hands in lap while she spoke. "I was a part of Team Rocket, and I was brought along on a mission to capture that entei," Lucy pointed with one of her claws towards the hole in the cave.

"_Wait, you were a part of Team Rocket?_" Jake interrupted.

"Yeah. I came to their Boot Camp training base looking for a place to live. That's also where I met Meowth. After he left…I had nowhere else to go, so I just stayed with Team Rocket."

_Nowhere to go huh? I know how that can feel, _Jake said to himself, but not out loud. There would be time to talk about his past later.

"Anyway," Lucy continued. "Our boss wanted to capture an entei, and one had been spotted in remote place, so a group of grunts and I were chosen to go capture it.

"_Why'd they take you along?_"

"Who knows? Maybe because I could talk, maybe because they thought I was a good fighter. Any the reason, they decided to take me."

Lucy's headache was acting up again, so she stopped talking for a second while it passed. After it had, she went back to the story telling.

"We all went to the area where the entei was hiding, which happened to be a forest."

"_Was it the same forest where I saw the entei for the first time?_"

Lucy shook her head. "No, it was a different one. Once we got there, we all split up to try and find the entei. After about ten minutes, someone had found him and started to battle him. Once they heard the fighting, all the other grunts gathered to where the entei was and started to fight him as well. They entei, being a fire type, lit the whole forest on fire while he was fighting. It was something that I could only describe as hellfire. Si-"

"Lucy, come in," a voice came from inside of the sneasel's ear. Lucy jumped a little, as she was not expecting this. She put on of her claws on the earpiece.

"Here," Lucy replied.

"There you are. You didn't answer the last few times I tried to contact you. What was the problem?"

"I was…unable to." Jake waited patiently as Lucy talked to the boss.

"What's the status on the meowth and vulpix?"

"I've had…some problems," Lucy said simply.

"Alright, well, the clients are getting a little bit impatient, so you better hurry up."

"Will do," Lucy finished their conversation. She took her claw off the earpiece and put it back in her lap. "Where was I?" she asked as if nothing had happened.

"_Grunts started to fight the entei," _Jake reminded her as if nothing had happened.

"Right. Since I, of course, was not a trainer, to fight the entei I would have to get close to him. So, I took advantage of the fact that he was distracted by everyone else. I ran up to him and slashed him in his leg. After that, he was enraged and and forgot about everyone else. He targeted only me, and, even when I ran, followed me. Eventually, I couldn't run anymore, and he roasted me alive, kinda like what he did to me a few days ago."

"_Wow, I never knew that happened to you." _Jake said after Lucy was done with her story.

"Yeah, it did," Lucy affirmed. "Team Rocket wasn't able to capture the entei, and so they retreated, leaving me there for dead. After that, the boss found me inside a ditch, all burned up, and took me in, and healed me up. Without him, I wouldn't be here right now. That's why I have to capture Meowth and the vulpix. I can't go against him because he saved my life, and now I need to repay him. "

After all this, Lucy breathed a sigh. She was glad that she was done telling that horrible story, and she hoped that she never would have to again.

Jake leaned slightly over to be able to see out of the small hole that went to the outside. As expected, the entei had not moved from his spot, intent on staying there until Lucy came out.

"_And he's been chasing you for an entire year, just because you hurt him once?" _Jake said, imagining how stressful that must be.

"Yeah…" Lucy said quietly. "I must have really hurt him. You can still the the scar that I made if you look hard enough." She looked up to the other end of the cave that lead into the darkness. "Do you think Meowth and his friends found a way out?" she asked, wanting to change the subject now that she was done with the story.

"_If they didn't they would have come back here. What I'm more worried about is them keeping their end of the bargain."_

"What do you mean by that?"

"_They said that they were going to fix their balloon and then come back for us, but I'm not sure if I believe them."_

"Don't worry," Lucy said, her voice soft but confident. "Even if they don't want to, I know Meowth will convince the others to come back for us."

"_You sure?"_

"Not a doubt in my mind."

* * *

The warm sun and slight breeze of the summer air felt great on Scarlett's skin. She laid in the beautiful green grass, soaking up the atmosphere. She took a breath of the fresh air through her nose and let it out.

_This feels nice_, Scarlett thought. She looked over to her side to see how her slash wound was fairing. It was healing up nicely and had not been infected, which was always a good thing. It still hurt, though. That fact had not changed.

"Oww…" Meowth let out a grunt, as he also in pain. Scarlett looked up and watched him as he precariously wrapped the white bandage around his injured shoulder. "Guess that will do," he said once he thought he had put on enough. Meowth picked up the medicine case he had put on the ground and placed the roll of bandages inside of it. He closed the container, walked over to the balloon, and placed the box back into its designated place; a small pocket on the side of the nest of the balloon.

"You know, you might want to keep that without," James suggested to Meowth from where he was sitting.

"Why's that?" Meowth asked. James set down his sewing needle and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Today had been a very hot day, and was definitely the balmiest since they had started their trek to the depot.

"Because the wound might start to bleed more, or you'll hurt it again." James picked back up the sewing needle and continued his mending of the popped balloon. "You know, just in case," James added with a shrug.

"Guess it couldn't hurt," Meowth agreed. He picked back up the box and slung it around his shoulder by the strap that it had.

"Now that you're done with that, come over here and help us fix this balloon," Jessie ordered, hard at work with the sewing, just like James.

"Yeah, I hear ya, I hear ya," Meowth waved off his temperamental friend. He picked up his own sewing kit from the inside of the balloon, as all three of them had their own. Meowth walked over, sat next to James, and started to do his own part of the sewing.

No one talked while the sewing went on. They all wanted to get it done as fast as possible. With the three of them working on it, the balloon was up and running in no time. They fired up (literally) the engine and heated the balloon up. Eventually, they were all ready to go.

Jessie and Meowth packed up the sewing supplies while James went over and picked up Scarlett. She could probably walk on her own by now, but James still didn't want to take any chances of her wound reopening. After all, that would cause her a lot of pain.

Oh yeah, and she wouldn't look as good for the boss. Guess that too.

In the end, however, all that mattered was that Scarlett didn't mind him carrying her, so James kept doing it.

After everyone had gotten inside the balloon, Meowth pumped up the flame, and the balloon took to the sky.

"Alright, now that there are no more delays, it's time to get Scarlett to the boss!" Jessie said triumphantly with her hand pointing towards the sky. She was sure that this time, they would not get interrupted. Not by entei, nor by ampharos. Neither rain nor shine was going to stop them this time.

Meowth whipped around and looked at Jessie with a face of scrutiny.

"You're kidd'n, right?"

"What? You don't actually expect us to hold out end of deal with those two Pokemon, do you?" Jessie asked with one her hands up in the air, the other on her hip.

"Well, yes I did. And as long as I'm the one who's driving this balloon, we're going back for 'dem."

"Meowth, come on," Jessie protested. "The depot's only a few miles away now. We could be there in an hour or two, maybe less. Why do we need to go back for those twerps?"

Meowth was getting angry now. He couldn't just leave Lucy back there. He'd already done that kind of thing once; he wasn't going to do it again.

"You know, Meowth," James spoke up. "Jess has a point." He started to pet Scarlett as he talked. "All that those two have done for us is ruin our plans. We would already be at the depot and going back to catch Pikachu if those two hadn't gotten in our way."

"But…" Meowth tried to argue.

"And remember that they are still trying to capture you," Jessie interrupted him. "And there's no telling that the entei isn't going to follow us." Jessie leaned her elbow on one of the poles of the balloon. "And I don't know about you, but I've had enough entei for this lifetime." Jessie started to check her nails to make sure they were all looking good.

"I understand that Lucy's your old friend and all," James concluded, "but I just don't think it's worth it."

Meowth had had enough of this.

"Come on you guys! You don't understand!" Meowth yelled. This caught both Jessie and James off guard. Meowth pointed at the two of them. "Tell me, if one of you guys were trapped in a cave by an entei-even if they were trying to capture you-you would go back and get each other, despite the risks and danger, right?"

"Well of course!" Jessie and James said in perfect sync.

The air was silent for a moment. Jessie and James snapped their heads to look at each other. They stared, for a few seconds, none of them saying a word, the effects of what Meowth said setting in.

"See what I mean?" Meowth interrupted the silence. "You would be there for each other in their time of need, no matter what."

James took her eyes off of Jessie and looked to the ground, now understanding Meowth. "Well, I guess, when you put it that way…" James trailed off.

A growl escaped Jessie's mouth. "Alright, fine," she responded in an aggravated tone. "We'll go back for those two, but if anything bad happens, don't say we didn't warn you!" Jessie crossed her arms and turn away from Meowth, angry that they weren't going to the depot right away.

Meowth didn't say anything more, but instead plotted a course back to the cave where Jake and Lucy were.

James sat down and put Scarlett in his lap. He continued to pet her, which she liked very much.

"You know, you remind me of my pet growlithe that I had at home," James reminisced to Scarlett. The vulpix turned and listened to James. "I named him Growlie. He was my first Pokemon, and I loved him dearly." James let out a sigh that contained within it the impact of those memories. "I left him at my parents house. I do hope I'll be able to see him again one day."

"_Vulpix!"_ Scarlett said in a happy tone. James nodded his head.

"Thanks," James said, guessing what she had said.

"Hey, do you two see that?" Jessie got James' and Meowth's attention. She was leaning on one of the walls of the nest, with her arms crossed on the narrow top of it. She took one of her arms and pointed at something in the sky.

"I don't see anything," James said. He took Scarlett and put her on the ground before getting up to his feet and walking over to where Jessie was. Meowth let go of the rope that controlled the fire for a second to also hop over to the top of the wall to see what Jessie was looking at.

"There," Jessie pointed again. James squinted to see it. At first, he still didn't see anything, but after more squinting, he was finally able to make out what she saw. Small, red and orange flakes were blowing by them, being carried by the wind.

"Embers…" James said, notifying Jessie that he saw what she had wanted him to see.

"'Dere would only be embers if there was a fire 'round 'ere, right?" Meowth asked rhetorically.

"Why would there be a fire around these parts?" Jessie asked.

"Do you think maybe the entei caused it?" James thought out loud. "Maybe it's a forest fire."

"Perhaps," Jessie agreed. "In that case, let's just be glad that we aren't anywhere near it."

"Yeah."

* * *

Some time had passed since either one of them had talked. There wasn't really anything to talk about.

"Hey, Jake?" Lucy said quietly.

"_Yes, Lucy?_"

"Um… can I tell you something,"

"_Sure, you can tell me anything. You know I'm here for you._"

"Well, it's about Meowth…"

"_Mh-hm?"_

Lucy started to rub one of her arms like she was embarrassed with what she was about to say.

"Well, it's just that…I ha-"

"Hey guys," Meowth's voice came from the deeper part of the cave. His head was poking out from behind the stone wall. Jake and Lucy snapped their heads towards him when he started talking.

"Meowth." Lucy got up from her seat, which prompted Jake to get up as well.

"We've fixed the balloon and are all ready to leave," he said in a quiet voice, hoping that the entei outside couldn't hear him. "Follow me,"

"Right," Lucy said with a nod. Meowth's head disappeared from behind the wall, and Lucy ran behind it after him. Jake wondered what Lucy was about to say, but didn't give it too much thought as he, too, ran after the others.

The travel back through the cave wasn't as bad as it had been when Meowth had gone through it twice. Before, he had to traverse the cave, doing it in complete dark, feeling his way through the cave. This time, Jake's tail light guided their way, allowing them to see in the normaly pitch black cave.

"Oh, Meowth, are you alright?" Lucy asked him concerned.

"Huh? What do ya mean?"

Lucy pointed to Meowth's shoulder. "Why's that bandage there?"

"Oh this? Right, you were freaking out when it happened. I tripped while distracting 'dat entei and bruised up my shoulder pretty good. It's nothing to worry about, though."

"Are you sure?" Lucy asked, very worried about her cat friend.

"Yeah, I've had much worse," he reassured her.

"Al…alright," Lucy replied, with nothing else to say.

Eventually, the three Pokemon were able to make it out of the cave because Meowth had memorized how to get out from the last two times he went through there. The meowth hot-air-balloon was stationed right outside the exit to the cave. Jessie and James were already inside it, waiting for Meowth.

"Come on, we don't have all day," Jessie urged them, still not entirely happy to have gone back for Lucy and Jake.

Meowth, Lucy, and Jake all hopped into the balloon without a word. Meowth started back up the engine and got the balloon going again.

"Let's just hope the entei doesn't follow us," James wished as the balloon lifted off the ground.

"You can say 'dat again," Meowth agreed.

* * *

The fire beast sat outside of the cave, waiting for the sneasel to come out of it. Since this was the only exit to the cave, she would have to come out eventually, and when she did, he would finally get his revenge on her.

Of course, he thought that this was the only exit out of the cave. He could be wrong. Just in case, he decided to check that she was still there.

The entei got up from his prone position and peeked inside the tiny hole that led into the cave. What he saw was nothing he expected.

Literally, he saw nothing. No sign of the sneasel or the others traveling with her.

_How could she have gotten out?_ the entei questioned, furious that he was somehow outsmarted. He hadn't heard them leave. They must have been really quiet. Stepping back from the cave, the entei took a long smell of the air to try and track down where she had gone.

After a few seconds, he picked up a faint smell of her. It wasn't much, but maybe he could catch up to them. He took off in a stride. He wasn't going to let that sneasel get away that easily.

"_So you guys travel around in this everywhere you go?" _Jake asked as a passing conversation.

"Yup," Meowth replied, the only member of the trio able to understand him. "This has been our main vehicle since we started, and will most likely be for some time to come."

"_Well, you would always be able to enjoy beautiful views." _

"So, Lucy, where are we taking you?" Meowth asked.

Lucy had been lost in thought when Meowth had said this to her, staring up into the sky. She turned her head in response to Meowth's question.

"What?"

"Well, I assumed that you guys didn't want to stay with us, so I was wondering where I should drop you off. Somewhere far away from the entei I presume?"

"Um…yeah, that's fine." Lucy said. She put on of her hands back on her head, her migraine still very present. "Somewhere away from the entei. I can decide what to do from there."

"Alright. Hey, you alright?" Meowth said.

"Yeah, just a headache," she replied. "It will be gone soon."

"Hey, ah, Lucy, was it?" James spoke up. Scarlett was no longer in his hands, as he had put her down and she was resting soundly in the corner.

"Yeah?" Lucy responded, looking back up at the clouds.

"I've been wondering, why and how did you learn to talk?" James asked. This had been a question that had bothered him for a while, and he wanted to know.

"Why do you care that much?" Jessie asked. "She can talk, end of story."

"Is there some harm in asking, Jess?"

"Well, it's…complicated." Lucy started, before shaking her head. "Nevermind. You don't need to know." Lucy didn't want to talk about personal things with these people. They were still enemies.

James nodded slightly. He understood why she didn't want to tell. They were after all, not on good terms. They only had a slight 'treaty' going on right now which was the reason they weren't at each other's throats. The only reason they had gone back for her was because of Meowth anyway.

It was at that time that James thought he had heard something. It was faint, but James could swear he could hear some kind of fire crackling. Yeah, there it is, and this time it's louder, and getting even louder.

_Wait, that means…uh-oh_, was all that James could think before a stream of fire came from below them and went straight into their balloon. The hole that was caused by the Flamethrower started to leak air, which caused it to lose altitude.

Everyone one inside the balloon went to grab onto something to keep from falling out of the balloon. James quickly scooped down and picked up Scarlett in his hands. He held her close to his chest to make sure that she was not injured anyway during the fall.

It didn't take long for the deflated balloon to collide into the ground with a loud crash.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds while they recovered from the abrupt landing. As expected, the entei slowly walked up to the crashed balloon and stood several meters from it, getting ready to fight.

The first noise to come out of anyone's mouth was not from the entei, not from Lucy, but from Jessie. It was a scream. Not a fearful scream, mind you, but a scream of intense anger.

"THAT IS IT!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. "WE JUST HAD THIS FIXED, AND I AM NOT ABOUT TO LET THIS SLIDE!" Jessie stood up and looked around for the culprit of this.

There he was, the entei, just standing there like he hadn't just taken down someone's balloon or anything.

"YOU! THIS IS THE LAST STRAW!" Jessie yelled. She jumped out of the balloon and took a Pokeball off her belt. "YOU AREN'T GOING TO GET AWAY WITH THIS THIS TIME!" Jessie looked back and the balloon. "James! Get over here!" She called.

James had just gotten over the fact of having their balloon popped again, and now, here was Jessie, wanting to take an entei on in a battle.

"Um, Jessie, maybe-" he started, trying to be the voice of reason.

"No maybe's! We are ending this here and now!" Jessie continued with her anger fueled assault. She turned back around and held Arbok's Pokeball tightly.

"Prepare for trouble, you won't beat us this time!" Jessie started the motto, her voice seething with rage.

James knew that it was futile to try and change Jessie's mind, so he might as well not anger her any more. He set Scarlett down on the ground and jumped out of the balloon. He got out Weezing's Pokeball and took his place beside Jessie.

"And make it double; that's easy to rhyme!" James joined Jessie in the lines that they had quoted so many times.

"Not again…" Lucy said to herself.

"_Lucy, run," _Jake breathed as he jumped out of the balloon to join Jessie and James.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"Wh-what?" Lucy asked in bewilderment. What Jake had said was clear, but with the entei here, her mind was clouded.

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"_I said run! We'll hold the entei off. Just go!"_

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"B-but…"

"_Meowth, take Lucy and run, got it?" _Jake said as more of an order than anything else.

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

Meowth was also very shaken up by this series of events. "But what about-"

"_Don't worry about your friends, I'll help them. Just focus and getting Lucy out of here!"_

"Jessie!"

"Right," Meowth nodded his head in understanding.

"James!"

Meowth grabbed Lucy's arm and pulled her slightly towards the other end of the balloon that led opposite of the entei.

"Come on, Lucy, let's go!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"R-right," Lucy hesitantly said back. She and Meowth climbed out of the balloon and started to run in the opposite direction, into the forest, hoping that Jessie and James had distracted the entei enough that he wouldn't realize that Lucy was running away.

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" James said the last line of their motto.

"Meowth, that's right," Meowth whispered under his breath. The two of them ran into the trees, hoping that the entei wouldn't be able to catch up with them.

Scarlett, who was still in the balloon, was confused by what to do now. She certainly couldn't join Jessie, James, and Jake in fighting the entei, but she didn't think she would be any help to Meowth or Lucy either.

Scarlett looked back and forth at the entei and at Meowth and Lucy. The two of them were running away, so she would have to make her decision quickly.

"_Well, here goes nothing,"_ she whispered. She leaped out of the balloon and ran to catch up with Meowth and Lucy. She knew that something big was about to go down, but she just hoped that everyone would get out of it not brutally burned.

* * *

**Next chapter is going to be the final for this 'Lucy and the entei' arc. Hope I see you there. **


	17. Hellfire

**WHOOOO DOGIE**

***Clears Throat* Sorry about that, got a little bit carried away. But I'm finally done with this chapter. After a 3-4 month hiatus, I'm back. **

**No, I didn't die, and no, I didn't stop writing. This chapter was just the hardest one I have had to write yet. Not only is it the longest, (10,238 words before the A/N) but it was the first chapter that I had to have a running theme all throughout it, instead of events happening here and there. I think it turned out alright, but I'll let you decide that yourself. **

**You've got a lot to read, so I won't keep you any longer. Hope you like it.**

* * *

The beating of her own heart was all that Lucy was able to hear. The blood rushing in and out of her ears clogged up all other sound.

She couldn't believe it. Why did this always happen to her? Just when she had thought she was safe; just when she actually thought that maybe she would be free from his torment for just a little bit; just when she had gotten a small, very negligible amount of hope in her; the entei came and snached it up any anyway. Remorseless, the entei would-Lucy knew-never stop chasing her until she was dead.

_It's not fair_, she thought to herself. _It's just…not…fair._

It didn't take long for Lucy to tire herself out. She slowed to a stop while breathing heavily from the spontaneous sprint that she was forced to perform.

"Hey, Lucy, what's the matter?" Meowth's voice came from in front of Lucy. His calling sounded very distant to her.

"Just…need to…catch my breath," Lucy got out in between pants.

"Come on, Lucy, we both know we don't got dat much time!" Meowth pushed. He trotted over to where Lucy had stopped before continuing. "Look, Jessie and James are my pals, but even I know that they won't be able to keep that entei busy forever."

As if on cue, a cry came from above the treetops.

"Oh, come on! That's not even fair!" Jessie's voice rang out as she and Arbok drifted across the sky, growing smaller and smaller on the dark blue canvas before disappearing with the signature twinkle in the sky.

Meowth tightened the strap of his medicine pack he still had and turned back to Lucy. "Case 'n' Point."

Lucy stood up straight and looked behind them, half-expecting the entei to already be behind them. He wasn't, which meant that James and Jake were still holding him off. This reminded Lucy of something. She frantically turned back round.

"Wh-what about Jake?" Lucy asked hysterically as if Meowth would know exactly what Jake would be doing. She was worried about him. Last time he and the entei had a stand off, Jake barely made it out. Unlike the others, Jake wouldn't be able to just blast off to get away from him. What would happen without anyone else to divert the entei's anger?

Meowth just responded with a shrug.

"He's a capable fighter, but I don't think even he could deal with dat thing," he restated exactly what Lucy knew to be true. "But, we can't focus on that now. We need to keep going!"

Lucy was silent for a few seconds. She didn't say anything, but Meowth knew that she wasn't fairing well. These recent entei attacks had taken their toll on her.

Still, in spite of all that, Lucy was trying to do the best she could, even with the entei looming over them. This was all very hard for her, but she would try and make it through.

Another voice sliced through Meowth and Lucy's thoughts as it echoed above the forest.

"Why does this always happen?" the voice, this time belonging to James, was shouted out into the treetops before he and his Weezing, like their partners, disappeared into the empty blueness of the atmosphere.

Meowth knew that his friend's defeat was inevitable, but he worried that trying to find them after this might be a repeat of what happened before. This time, however, he wouldn't have Arbok and Weezing with him, so it would be even harder. He quickly put this out of mind, however, as he needed to first get out of the problem at hand.

"Lucy, come on, we gotta move!" Meowth urged, reminded of their time constraint by James' blasting off. He tugged on Lucy's arm to try and get her to move. Lucy instinctively yanked her arm out of Meowth's grasp, but then immediately felt bad about it. Meowth was right-no matter what, they had to keep moving. It was like Jake had said: she had to be brave. Standing around in fear won't accomplish anything. She gave a nod.

"Alright," Lucy agreed quietly. She took one last good breath before she would have to sprint again. Just as the two were about to run again, another cry came from behind them.

"_Hang on, wait for me!" _a high, soprano voice shouted out. Lucy and Meowth simultaneously turned their heads around to see who the newcomer was.

"Scarlett?" Meowth asked, surprised. The small, red fox slowed her prancing as she joined the two of them. "What are you doing here?" Meowth asked, slightly confused.

"_I decided to come and help you guys," _she replied. "_There was no way I could fight that entei, so I didn't stay with Jessie and James, but I still wanted to be useful. So, I followed you two."_

Meowth looked slightly skeptical at what she could help with. She was very fragile, and Meowth was unsure that she would be up to the challenge, especially while she was still injured. Scarlett face drooped as she noticed this.

"_L-look. I might not be very good at battling," _Scarlett reasoned, _"and I know I'm nothing special, but I-I'll try to help out in any way I can," _she said, her voice as genuine as gold. Meowth let out a sigh. It's not like he could just say no to that.

"Alright, just stay close to us, and if things get rough, don't be afraid to back out," Meowth's expression dropped as he added with sincerity, "I don't want you to get hurt."

Scarlett responded with a nod and a smile.

Lucy wondered why a prisoner like her would want to help them. What gain did she have to put herself in the line of danger and not run away? Why would she be helping her captors in the first place.

Lucy's thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar. It shook the trees and the ground, causing a flock of pidgey to fly away from a nearby tree where they had been perched.

"Let's get going!" Meowth ordered with urgence. Lucy and Scarlett needed no more reason to start running. Their legs began to move as the three Pokemon resumed their run.

With their feet once again pounding on the ground, their breaths came faster as they ran. Sticks and leaves crunched under the three's paws, lightly breaking the silence of the forest.

"_So, what's the plan exactly?" _Scarlett called out from the back of the group.

"We don't have one. Just getting away from that entei is our current goal!" Meowth called back. They could figure out their next move after they did that. Scarlett had hoped that their plan would have been more thought out, but, factoring in their time constraint, it was clear why they couldn't have come up with one.

As they continued to run, the air around them became slightly darker, almost as if fog had rolled in during the evening hours of the day. Meowth breathed in some of it as he ran, and immediately started coughing, trying to get the sudden stinging out of his throat. The transparent, gray air traveled back towards Lucy and Scarlett. They both inhaled too, and choked on it the same.

Unprepared for this, the trio stopped running momentarily to get over the stinging sensation in their lungs and in their eyes. Meowth and Lucy covered their mouths with their arms, while Scarlett coughed into her uninjured side.

"_Wh-why is th-_" Scarlett gave into another coughing attack. " _-there_ _smoke here?_" She asked to no one in particular. Sure, she was a fire type, but that didn't mean that the smoke stung her lungs any less.

Lucy, thinking fast, ducked behind a nearby tree to get a little respite from the smoke-filled wind. Meowth and Scarlett followed behind her. It didn't completely block all of the smoke, but it was better than nothing.

"There's only one reason that there's smoke here," Meowth said somberly. "There's got to be a fire somewhere. Most likely a forest fire." He looked around the tree and braved the smoke to assess if the fire was somewhere near them. He didn't see any yellow-orange flames in the direction of the smoke, so he assumed that the fire wasn't directly near them. He quickly whipped his head back around and went into another coughing fit. The fire wasn't close to them, but there certainly was one.

"Back when we were still in the balloon, we saw embers traveling through the air. This must be where they came from," Meowth concluded.

"_But how?" _Scarlett questioned while Meowth was still coughing. "_I mean, I know it's the middle of summer, but it's not possible that a tree could just randomly catch on fire, right? It must have been caused by someone._"

"Well…maybe…" Meowth stopped for a second to cough and think. "You'd think it would be caused by the entei, but how? He wouldn't just randomly burn a forest, would he?" He stayed silent as he thought about the reason. Lucy was also silent, nevermind the occasionally choking from the smoke that was now seeping around the tree.

As if a light bulb had turn on his his brain, Meowth's face shot up.

"Hang on, you don't think that…" Meowth paused for another cough. "When we were running away from the entei earlier, I mean, before going into the cave," he restarted, "do you think that the trees he burned there, do you think that maybe it spread all the way here?"

"_Really? In this short amount of time?"_ Scarlett questioned.

"It has been a few hours, and fire travels fast, may-"

"That's got to be it," Lucy interrupted Meowth. She was holding arms like she was cold, her red eyes clouded like the air around them. She looked up from her dazed state and over to Meowth. "There's no other way a fire this large could spread in this about of time."

"_How can you be that sure?"_ Scarlett question.

"Trust me, I know. This isn't the first time this has happened," Lucy replied.

Another roar went out through the forest. Lucy shivered when she heard this.

"He's getting closer…" she said vaguely, not really implying anything by that statement.

Meowth had been so busy discerning the origin of the fire, the fact that he had to get Lucy away from the entei had completely escaped him.

"Alright, we've got no other choice than to brave the smoke," Meowth spoke up. He grabbed Lucy's hand and prepared to run. She didn't rip her hand away like last time but instead looked up at Meowth. He wasn't looking at her, but instead his eyes were fixed on what was ahead, making sure that the way was clear before they decided to keep running. Lucy was touched by the fact that Meowth, even after all this time of trying to capture him, still cared about her and her welfare, even when they were being chased by the legendary beast of fire.

Perhaps, she was even a little bit more than touched.

"_Guys! Behind us!" _Scarlett practically shouted. Lucy and Meowth glanced behind them to see a blur of the colors brown, red and yellow making it's way through the trees. Meowth needed no other evidence to know who that was.

Without any more words, as those would be a waste of time and breath at this point, Meowth pulled Lucy around the tree and went into a dead sprint. Scarlett came up from behind, struggling with her injured side to keep up with the bipeds.

Meowth and Lucy covered their mouths with their free hands to block the smoke as they ran. Meowth glanced behind them to get a glimpse of the entei. He was catching up quick as he was naturally faster than both of them. However, just like last time, the dense trees were causing a serious problem for him. Trying his original tactic, he stopped and shot out a stream of fire that flew through the air and just missed Meowth and Lucy as it grazed to the right of them.

Meowth pulled Lucy around a small bump in the ground that couldn't really be called a hill. It _was_ large enough to provide them cover from the entei. Another Flamethrower clashed with the grass of the hill as Meowth and Lucy ducked behind it. Scarlett, whom the entei wasn't targeting, pranced around the hill a few seconds later, trying to catch up to the other two.

"Wh-what happened to Jake?" Lucy asked right before she started coughing again.

"What?" Meowth called out as they continued to run, wondering why that question would be on Lucy's mind right now. Another Flamethrower passed them by and set yet another poor tree ablaze.

"Jake," Lucy repeated. "If the entei's here, that must mean," she coughed some more, "that he got past Jake." Fear was in her eyes, but not for herself. "Do you think he's alright?"

"Lucy, we can't focus on that now!" Meowth exclaimed. "Jake told me to get you out of here, and that's what I'm going to do."

The smoke swirling around them made it especially hard to breath as the two of them continued their escape from the entei. Their running was halted when a large, blazing wall of trees stood in front of them. With nothing else to do, Meowth skidded to a halt, which jerked Lucy and almost made her fall over. Meowth quickly caught her before she did and helped her back onto her feet.

The two of them briefly looked up to the trees. The fire danced along the tree line, contrasted by the dark blue of the sky behind it. If they weren't being chased by an entei, and Lucy's life wasn't on the line, Meowth might have stayed to watch it.

Looking back, Meowth was just able to see a Fire Blast head their way. Taking Lucy by the arm once more, Meowth took a right since they couldn't go forward. The entei's attack hit the trees that were already on fire, adding even more flames to the already burning chaos.

As they continued, Meowth did his best to dodge between the overgrowth of the forest, like bushes and branches, being careful not to trip. He knew that one slip would mean the difference between life or death in this situation. Some of the smoke had died down, so he could see slightly better. This was also good news for Meowth and Lucy's lungs. He assumed that more of the forest was probably in flames, so he was sure they hadn't seen the last of it.

Soon, a sort of path had emerged out of the forest. It wasn't a man made path, but it was a place where the tree hadn't wanted to grow and the fire hadn't gotten to yet. Deciding that it would be easier to follow this path than to try and brave more of the undergrowth, Meowth pulled Lucy onto the trail. The two of the followed it, hoping for somewhere that they could get away from the entei.

Not any more time had passed before yet more fire came barreling through the forest from somewhere. Meowth grabbed Lucy and pulled her closer to him, just missing the heat that passed them and flew into more trees, continuing the entei's collateral damage.

_He really doesn't care if he burns down a whole entire forest just to get Lucy,_ Meowth thought to himself as he pulled Lucy forward back into a sprint. He was so obsessed with rage and getting back at Lucy that he wouldn't let anything get in his way.

After following the "road" a bit more, Meowth and Lucy found themselves at a place where this so called "path" split into two separate directions. Not wanted to stop and decide, Meowth chose the right path without thinking. It didn't matter where they were going, as long as it was away from the entei.

Another flamethrower found its way to where Meowth and Lucy were running, but this one was a bit off course and was wide to the left of them. This time, it happened to hit a boulder in the ground instead of a tree and stained it with a large, black scorch mark.

Meowth took a quick look behind him to check on Lucy. She was struggling, that was for sure. She was constantly looking back to check how close her nightmare was to them. Her eyes were wide, still very afraid of the hellish beast that followed them.

_Don't worry, Lucy, I'll get you out of this_, Meowth said to her in his thoughts.

Meowth turned back front and was met by a cloud of smoke in his face. Thinking fast, he covered his mouth and tried to hold his breath for as long as he could. He wanted to prevent any unnecessary coughing. The fact that they had been running for a while now and that Meowth was tired, however, proved this attempt to not be that helpful at all. He started to breath in the clouded air. He and Lucy choked once more on the polluted air around them.

As the path continued, two rows of trees, one on either side of them, were burning up, their branches and leaves ablaze with light. This streamlined where Meowth and Lucy were able to go, and set them on a fixed path. But, it didn't matter to Meowth too much. Afterall, it didn't matter where they were going, as long as they were getting away from the entei. So he wasn't too concerned about that right now.

However, when Meowth and Lucy were forced to stop in their tracks because a cliff wall was thwarting their attempts at fleeing, he kinda wished he had been.

The wall wasn't too high, only about two meters or so. But for Pokemon that were a sixth of that size, it seemed pretty humongous.

Quickly scanning the area, Meowth checked the situation. He couldn't led Lucy back down the path, as the entei was back there. The fire still burned on the two sides of them, so unless they felt like getting toasty, that wasn't an option either. Finally, he couldn't go backwards, as not even he could climb a sheer rock wall with the amount of time they had.

They were cornered and had nowhere to go.

"Meowth, what are we going to do?" Lucy cried pitifully.

"I-I don't know. Give me some more time!" Meowth said back to her, slightly panicked himself. As the fire continued its genocide of the forest around them, his eyes darted around for something, anything, that maybe could help them. Something that, perhaps, could save them in their time of need.

Alas, before anything could appear, the entei had caught up with them. His hulking body stood in the pathway, blocking their only chance of escape. Now they were truly trapped.

Checkmate.

The entei was about done with all this chasing. He was going to end this whole thing right here, right now.

The entei's mouth started to brim with fire as he charged up a fire attack. Rearing his head back, he released it at Meowth and Lucy.

Right before it hit the two of them, it collided with another attack, this one a yellow strike of lighting. The two attacks crashed into each other, causing a small explosion, which cleared the area of some of the smoke.

Lucy knew of only one Pokemon who could have made that attack. She looked up to the top of the cliff. The figure was slightly hard to tell out because of the darkness, but the light from the fire exposed him bright as day.

"J-Jake?" she said with surprise as the figure vaulted down the cliff. He landed in front of Meowth and Lucy, but did not look at them. His face bore a grimace. The right part of his body had been minorly burned, and cuts covered his whole ragged figure. Jake stared deep into the entei's eyes.

"_I told you before," _he gritted through his teeth, his hand pointing straight at the entei, "_I'm not letting Lucy get hurt anymore."_

"Jake…" The sneasel whispered to herself. His heroism seemed to know no bounds.

The entei had had enough of this yellow sheep. He had squelched his revenge plan too many times.

The volcano Pokemon brought his head back again and sent out another stream of fire at Jake. To counter, the ampharos tucked his arms in and charged up the electricity in his body. He sent it flying out in the form of a Thunderbolt, which collided with the Flamethrower. The two attacks melded and created another small blast of energy.

Meowth knew that standing trapped would do them no good, but he didn't see a way out, either. The only way they could escape would be to run around the entei, a feat that seemed impossible.

While Meowth was thinking of escape plans, Lucy was busy watching the battle behind him. She was shivering and her fur on end. If the entei got passed Jake, then it would be over for her.

The entei opened his mouth and let a Fire Blast loose. It crackled towards Jake, who built up and launched out another Thunderbolt. The two attacks hit, but the Fire Blast was much stronger than Jake's attack. The entei's attack was not entirely stopped by Jake's Thunderbolt, and continued to press against it, pushing it back little by little. Jake started to give more power into the attack to try and stop it before it got to him. He charged up all of his body and concentrated on his attack.

In a few seconds, the two attacks had reached equilibrium. Once their powers were the same, another explosion erupted, which was bigger than the last two. The shockwave caused a gust of wind that hit all the Pokemon. Lucy and Meowth recoiled while Jake stood his ground, not even flinching from it.

The heavy dust that had flown up upon the attacks collision made it hard to see. Therefore, Jake didn't know what the entei would do next until it was too late.

The entei charged through the smoke with his head forward, appearing as a complete surprise. Jake couldn't react in time and the entei's head-butt hit him with full force, throwing him against the rock with an audible crash.

"Jake!" Lucy gasped out in concern for her electric friend. He dropped to the ground as pebbles from the cliff were knocked off by the sudden force and fell to the dirt around him. They all made their own soft sounds as they hit ground.

Lucy couldn't take this anymore. She yanked her arm out of Meowth grasp and ignored his plea to stop as she ran over to Jake. She knelt down to his level before asking, "Jake, are you alright?"

Jake didn't have much energy left. He was unsure as to how much longer he could keep fighting this fire beast. His body hurt from head to toe and his strength was failing him. There's only so much punishment that one ampharos could take.

Slowly, Jake opened his eyes. His vision was blurry and he couldn't see straight. The fire all around him was almost too bright. The ampharos felt lightheaded and found it hard to think clearly. It took a little bit for him to notice that Lucy was hunched over him.

"Jake, tell me you're okay?" she asked again. Her voice sounded muffled and distant. Lucy's worry was very evident in her eyes; her irises showing deep concern. Even though she could be burned up in any second, she was caring about him instead. Jake remembered what he had said to her earlier in the day.

"_If that entei does decide to come after you, then he's going to have to get through me first." _Jake had said._ "And then, he's going to be sorry he ever tried to attack you."_

No, he wasn't going to give up just yet. He had made a promise to Lucy, and he wasn't about to go back on that.

Taking all the strength he had left, Jake managed to his lift himself off the ground with his arms and onto his feet. His knees shook, and he almost fell over again. He caught himself and afterwards stayed steady.

"_Lucy, stand back," _Jake's raspy voice warned her. "_Let me take care of this_."

Lucy gave a small nod to show that she understood. She took a few steps away from him and backed away towards Meowth.

The entei knew that he could try and aim for Lucy again with his Flamethrower, but that ampharos would most likely block it once more with his attack.

No, he would kill this problem at the source.

Opening his mouth one more time, the entei shot out a Flamethrower at Jake, expecting him to block it again. The electric type had a plan, however, to get around this.

Jake knew that just blocking attacks would do him no good. Only playing defence wouldn't get him anywhere. He needed to go on offence for this one.

Gathering his courage, Jake ran towards the spiraling cylinder of fire, arms out. Right before the Flamethrower made contact, Jake ducked under it and let it blow over. The attack kept going and crashed into the cliff behind him, leaving it was a black stain on brown rock.

Jake wasted no time after this. He charged towards the entei before the fire beast could calculate Jake's deft maneuver. Running right up next to him, Jake charged his fist with electricity and jabbed it straight into the entei's side. Surprised by the voltage, the entei crippled to the side, slightly paralyzed.

A flash shone in Meowth's eyes as he saw his chance.

Meowth grabbed Lucy's arm and started to run without giving her any warning. She almost tripped but was able to get back her balance rather quickly. With the entei stunned Meowth and Lucy passed him.

The entei, however, was going to lose that easily.

Getting up surprisingly fast, the entei lashed out his claws in an attempt to hit Lucy. They hit Lucy's side, each one cutting open three separate gashes. Lucy let out a scream of pain as the claws dug into her fur and then into her skin. Despite this, Lucy continued to keep up with Meowth as they ran away from him. The entei prepared a Flamethrower to chase them, but was interrupted by another Thunderpunch to the side, fizzling his attack.

Lucy turned around in time to see the entei get up off the ground and face Jake again, probably wanting to deal with him first before he went after her. She said a silent prayer for Jake's safety before she and Meowth ran out of their sight.

The blood from Lucy's new wound came fast, and her dark blue fur by her side was now painted red as the sticky fluid dripped down from the claw marks. She could almost feel her energy bleed out of her like her blood. She wouldn't be able to keep up running for too much longer with a wound like this.

After not too much time, Meowth and Lucy got back to the fork in the paths from before. This time, Meowth took the other way, the way they should have gone the first time. There was no way Meowth could have known he had picked the wrong way the first time, but he still felt that it was his fault Lucy got injured some more. He was hopefully on the right track now, so he put it behind him.

Meowth, however, had not been monitoring Lucy, and did not know that she was exhausted. Unable to run anymore, Lucy tried to slow down, but Meowth kept pulling on her, so she ended up tripping and falling to the ground face first. This unexpected change in mass also pulled Meowth down backwards, and the two crumbled down together with a 'thud'.

Meowth bounced back up to check on his dark type friend.

"Lucy, are you hurt?" he asked, feeling slightly responsible for their fumble. The sneasel didn't answer. She was too busy passing off the pain that had erupted when her burned and mangled body hit the ground. Meowth grabbed her arm and attempted to help her up. In the end, Lucy was too weak, and when she tried to pull herself to her feet, she ended up falling over again.

"Lucy, I know you're tired, I am too, but we can't stop to rest, if we do, then-"

Meowth was unable to say anymore before the entei finished a seismic jump and landed on the ground a few meters next to them. His feet smashing into the soot covered dirt caused the whole area to shake. Meowth was unable to keep his footing after this quake, and fell over onto the ground.

The entei's eyes were locked onto Lucy. She was there on the ground, horror in her eyes as she vainly tried to crawl backwards.

This time, she was his.

Opening his mouth to finally end this long drawn out pursuit, the entei build up fire in his mouth and sent a blast of searing inferno at Lucy.

As the bright flames came to seal her doom, Lucy closed her eyes and prepared for the heat to hit her flesh once more, knowing that this was it. This was where she died.

"Lucy!" Meowth shouted over the crackling of the fire. Swiftly, he jumped up from the ground and grabbed his friend. With one, quick motion, he turned his back towards the Fire Blast and protected Lucy the best way he could.

In the only way he could.

The story could have ended there. The Fire Blast could have hit Meowth and Lucy, and the two of them would be burned to ashes, nothing left of them. A tragic tale, that's what this story could have been.

But fate had dictated another outcome.

Right before the star of fire hit the two of them, a third character appeared. She jumped in front of the attack, taking the full power of the hit. The incredible force of the blast sent her small, red body flying across the ground for a few meters before she hit into a tree that had the pleasure of not being on fire yet. She let out a yelp of pain as she fell to the ground.

Meowth took note that he hadn't been burned yet and opened his eyes. Lucy's eyes were still shut, but they opened slowly after Meowth's had.

Meowth looked up from his ice friend and looked over to where the small figure was on the ground. His expression changed when he recognized who it was.

"S-Scarlett?"

The vulpix got up from the ground and gave her body a shake, shrugging off the impact of the tree.

"Don't worry about me! Just run!" she yelled over the searing sound of fire that surrounded them.

Meowth didn't know how Scarlett was just shrugging off a Fire Blast, but he didn't have time to think about that right now. He could ask James about it later as he most likely knew why.

By the arm, Meowth grabbed Lucy, who just came the realization that she wasn't ash right now, and got back into running. He knew Lucy was still tired, but they certainly couldn't stand around here gaining back their breath.

The entei wasn't going to take this lying down. He threw another fire attack in Lucy's direction, this one a Flamethrower. It didn't go very far, as Scarlett again jumped in front of it and took the all the attack. Not as strong as the Fire Blast, the attack didn't launch Scarlett as far and she recovered with relative ease.

As he ran into the distance. Meowth glanced back to check on Scarlett and saw her take the Flamethrower. He had hopped that Scarlett could stay out of this, but he was glad she was helping.

At the time, however, he did not know that. He was worried that she would get injured fighting the entei. In the end, he would just have to trust her and her judgement. Scarlett did, after all, just save their lives.

The amount of running that Meowth and Lucy had done at this point was bordering on ludicrous. Meowth wouldn't have been surprised if they had run over half of the entire forest by this point. Eventually, they ran into a part of the forest that was somewhat of a clearing, with no trees having grown in the area.

Meowth ran into it hoping that maybe there would be somewhere to take respite and rest around here. But, running further into the clearing made it evident that that was not the case.

All around, the trees that were surrounding the clearing were on fire, every single one of them. The only place that didn't have fiery trees, or any trees, was the direction right in front of Meowth, which happened to be a cliff face. There was no way to go. Another dead end.

Meowth didn't want to get trapped again, so he turned back hoping that Scarlett would have distracted the entei long enough to give them the time to get out of this dead end.

"Meowth, watch out!" Lucy cried out. One of her claw pointed up to a tall, slim tree. Like the others around it, it was painted red by the fire the engulfed it. Unlike all the others, it was slowly coming towards Meowth. Realizing what was going on, Meowth jumped backwards right as the tree slammed into the ground, dodging it just in time. The crash from the flaming tree expelled embers all around it. Meowth and Lucy backed up so they wouldn't get burned.

Meowth let out a grumble as he looked around. That was their only way out of this dead end, and now they were trapped in between the fire and the cliff.

"Well, if you have any more ideas," Meowth said as he backed up deeper into the clearing, "then say them now."

Lucy looked around for some way that they could get out of this. There had to be something that could help them, right?

The cliff was the only place that they could go without being burned, but jumping off a cliff didn't seem like a good way to survive either.

Then again, it may be a better option than trying to fight the entei.

As she looked back over to the cliff, something else caught her eye. A small, green jeep, normally hidden in the background of green grass and trees, was now in plane view against the fire behind it.

Lucy's eyes widened and soul lifted as she recognized the vehicle.

"My jeep!" She exclaimed and began to run over to it. Meowth turned around with confusion. Her jeep?

Lucy ran up to the green jeep and felt it with her hands. It was like a godsend. With this, they could drive through the fire blocking them fast enough to not get injured by it.

"You own a jeep?" Meowth asked as he ran and caught up to Lucy.

"Yeah, I do," she turned her head and replied with a nod.

"Can you drive it?"

"Of course."

Meowth's eye shot up at this. He was impressed. Where did she ever learn to drive a jeep?

"Why is it 'ere?" He asked.

"I parked it while I was spying on you guys. I left it here before Jake and I went to set up the-"

"Duck!" Meowth yelled out randomly. He took his hand and shoved Lucy down to the ground and lowered his head at the same time. Moments later, a Flamethrower passed over both of their heads.

Meowth looked over to see the entei staring them down from across the clearing. He was not happy with the constant interruptions, and now that they were all trapped inside this circle of fire, it was clear he was going to end it here.

Preparing for another flamethrower, the entei charged up more fire in his mouth. Meowth preemptively grabbed Lucy and pulled both of them behind the jeep right as the flamethrower was launched. It flew right past the jeep and over the edge of the land. Meowth knelt behind the jeep, just out of the fire's reach and set Lucy down next to him.

"Looks like we're out of time," Meowth commented. They didn't have a lot of options left. Driving the jeep was out of the picture. There would be no way Lucy could get it started up without the entei burning her. He quickly tried to think of anything else they could try.

Lucy was sitting on the ground and out of breath. This was it. She had thought that all those other times, but she knew that this time, there was no escape from the entei. Her time was up. She had her eyes closed out of fear and her right arm clinging onto Meowth. Lucy wasn't even going to try and stop it.

Meowth took a peek around the vehicle. The entei was making his way over to the jeep to deliver the finishing blow. They had nowhere else to go, and nowhere to run to, and the entei not only knew this, but was also taking full advantage of it.

Meowth put his head back into cover and tried to think of something to do. He glanced over to Lucy. She was cowering, waiting for her death by the hands of the hellbeast with her arm fastened tightly around his.

_Come on, Meowth, think, think! _He thought. There had to be someway that he could protect Lucy. He wasn't giving up now, so he needed a plan, an idea, of how to get Lucy out of this.

And then, an idea _did _hit him. It was insane. It was risky, and totally dangerous but…something told Meowth that he didn't have much of a choice.

Lightly pulling his arm away from Lucy, Meowth slowly got up to his feet. Lucy looked up to her cat friend, confusion in her eyes.

"Meowth, what are you doing?" She asked quietly. He turned his head slightly.

"Protecting you," he said back in a confident voice. He twisted his head back forward and began walking out of cover into the clearing.

"Meowth, no!" Lucy pleaded. She didn't want him to get hurt on her behalf. Meowth ignored her and walked out in clear sight of the entei.

The entei himself was slightly surprised by this act of courage and briefly stopped his advance. His crimson eyes landing on the small, white cat that was in front of him.

"If you want to hurt Lucy…" Meowth proclaimed before unsheathing his claws, "then you've gotta get through me first."

The entei's eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to be stopped by some simple meowth. He opened his mouth agape and released a Flamethrower. Meowth gracefully dodged to the side before charging towards the entei with his claws outstretched, preparing to attack.

Lucy couldn't take this. She never wanted Meowth to be caught up in any of her problems. And now, here he was, risking his life to take care of her problem. She scooted over to the side of the jeep and peered towards the battle of Meowth and the entei. She had to do something, but what? There was no way she could take on the entei herself, right? Even if she physically could, she was not mentally prepared for such a task. But she couldn't let Meowth down either.

The entei had gotten the upper hand in the battle pretty quickly. He knocked Meowth down by hitting him with one of his front legs when he had tried to go in for a scratch. Rearing back, the entei slammed his head into the cat. Meowth let out a gasp before being thrown across the clearing next to Lucy.

"M-Meowth!" She cried, hoping her friend was okay. He didn't answer. All he did was lay there on the ground.

_This isn't good_, she thought. _If I don't do anything, Meowth is going to get burned for my sake_.

The sneasel looked back down at Meowth to see his helpless, prone body on the ground. He was covered in bruises and cuts, all of which he hadn't had before this. They had all come from Meowth trying to get Lucy away from the entei.

Meowth had done so much for her, and here he was, caught up in something he shouldn't be, about to be cooked just because of her.

No.

Lucy couldn't let this happen. She couldn't let it end like this. She wasn't going to let the entei do this to the Pokemon that she cared about the most.

All this time, Lucy had been afraid of the entei because it was coming after her. But now that someone else was in danger because of her, her whole perspective switched. She wasn't afraid anymore. As long as Meowth lived, that was all that mattered.

It was now her turn to protect Meowth.

Ignoring the pain in her side, Lucy jumped out from behind the jeep and yelled out towards the entei. This caused him to stop his attack on Meowth and look over to Lucy.

Lucy's heart was pounding. She was terrified in the presence of her nightmare. She knew that she wasn't going to get out of this alive, but with her out of the way, the entei would have no reason to attack Meowth. Her hope was that her sacrifice would allow him to escape.

As the entei stared the sneasel down, Lucy opened her dry mouth to say something.

"I…I know you've been chasing me for a year," she got out slowly. "B-but I'm right here now…" Lucy's confidence slowly built itself up as she continued. "And this time, I'm not running away."

Turning her head, Lucy looked one last time at Meowth, knowing this was the last time she would see him. But looking at him only strengthened her convictions.

Raising her head up to look at the entei in his fiery eyes, Lucy opened up her arms and unleashed her claws.

"So come and get me!" She yelled.

The air was silent for a moment afterward. The warm, nighttime summer wind gently blew through the clearing. The crackling of the hellfire all around them continued, consuming all of the trees in it's path.

The entei decided that he would start this battle.

With one, swift motion, the entei let out a Flamethrower towards Lucy. The dark type twisted her body to dodge the attack and let the flames pass by her. Using this as an opening, Lucy ran forward with cat like speed and delivered a quick slash to one of his legs, just below the iron-like shackles that were around them.

The second her claws touched the entei's skin, they immediately felt hot to the touch. It was almost like his fur had the same intensity as a fire. Almost as if the beast was the essence of all fire.

After the attack, she continued to run and didn't stop. The entei let out a roar of pain from his wound. He tried to counterattack, but Lucy was already too far away from him to do anything about it.

Lucy performed a u-turn and came back at the entei, ready for another attack. The entei's back was now towards her, so she aimed for one of his back legs on the other side of him.

The entei, however wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice. When Lucy extended her claws to attack, he put all of his weight onto his front paws and moved his back legs out of the way. Lucy grimaced as her slash missed. Right as his hind legs hit the ground, the entei extended one of his front legs right in front of Lucy. She had no time to react and her legs ended up running into it, tripping the rest of her. She extended her arms and caught herself before she hit the ground, but that didn't matter much. The entei had her right where he wanted.

Lucy quickly turned her head over to the entei and saw the same paw that tripped her coming down, preparing to crush her. Just before it hit the dark type, Lucy pushed herself with one arm to her right, rolling out of the way. The massive, brown paw crashed right next to her, creating a small shockwave in the ground.

Knowing that she wouldn't be able to make up lost time, Lucy used her arms and jumped up to her feet as fast as she could. The entei, however, wasn't going to waste any time, either.

Right as she got up, the entei launched a flamethrower point blank at Lucy. With quick reflexes, she ducked down as the attack sailed right over her back. She could feel the heat on her back as her hairs stood on end. Lucy shuttered at the thought of being burned again and how easy it would be for her to mess up and have that happen once more. She put it out of mind rather quickly, as that was the last thing she needed to be focusing on right now.

After the Flamethrower fizzled out, Lucy straightened up and ran back towards the entei. Deciding that she was going to try to faint an attack, she jumped up and threw a weak punch at the entei's head. As expected, the entei moved his head back and dodged the attack, allowing Lucy to prepare another punch to his underbelly. Unexpectedly, however, the entei moved his head back and opened his mouth, showing his long fangs in the process. His sharp teeth found Lucy's arm in no time, and his mouth clamped down on her fur.

Immediately, Lucy could feel the fangs pierce and slice through her skin. She let out a yell as pain erupted from her arm. The entei shook Lucy back and forth with his jaw, which caused even more excruciating pain for Lucy. Her arm felt like it could be ripped apart at any second with the teeth burrowing through her skin.

After a few seconds of torture, the entei opened his mouth and let go of Lucy by throwing her, launching the poor sneasel a few meters into the air. She flailed a little bit before smashing into the ground with a muffled thud.

Lucy's whole body ached from her burns, but her arm was the thing most in pain. It hurt so much that Lucy couldn't even move it without it feeling like it was on fire; Lucy even guessed that it was broken. Blood was pouring out of the teeth marks at an alarming rate, more and more of it coming out with each passing second.

Much slower that before, Lucy got up using her other arm and back onto her feet. She wasn't able to stay there for long before the entei's head collided with her body, sending her flying once again. After a moment of more flight, Lucy ended up slamming into her jeep causing her whole body to blow up in pain. A agonizing yell escaped her mouth and she fell to the ground.

The pain from everything was too much. Lucy could barely even concentrate. She looked down at herself to see her fur almost completely red, stained by all the blood, most of it being her's. From afar, you could even mistake her fur for_ being_ red, there was so much of it.

Lucy found the strength to move her head upwards from her slouched position and towards the entei. He was standing there, observing Lucy, helpless as she was.

_Is there really any way to beat him? _Lucy hazily thought. _He has no weak spot, and anything I do to him doesn't seem to faze him. _

Lucy's thoughts were interrupted by her going into a coughing fit. After the third cough, blood started to come with them. She stopped eventually before mentally adding a bruised lung to her list of injuries.

Lucy turned her head to her left to see Meowth, who was still on the ground unconscious. It was odd that in just a few minutes, Lucy and Meowth had completely switched places. She was now that one fighting for her life, brutally beaten and near-death.

But she had to keep going. Meowth would have kept going no matter what.

And so should Lucy.

The entei opened his mouth to deal what he thought would be the final blow. A ball of fire erupted from out of his jaws and the ball soon turned into a Fire Blast, which sped towards Lucy and her jeep.

Right before the Fire Blast hit her, Lucy pushed on her legs and dived out of the way, landing on the ground a meter away. The landing stung her whole body, which caused Lucy to flinch. It wasn't as bad as the pain she had felt earlier, and it was certainly better than being burned alive, so she would deal with it.

Now that Lucy was out of the way, the Fire Blast instead collided with her jeep. An explosion ensued, causing the jeep to launch up into the air and spiral out of control. It did many flips before coming back down and soaring off of the cliff, falling deep to the ground below, landing with a distant crash.

For a second, Lucy was demoralized at the thought of losing her jeep. But, the sadness gave way to triumph as it gave her an idea.

From where she was on the ground, Lucy turned to see the cliff that her jeep had tumbled over. Initially, Lucy soul goal was not to beat the entei, but merely to do as much damage to him before she went out. Maybe, however, she didn't have to fight the entei to beat him. Maybe something else would do the work for her.

Now with a plan in mind, Lucy got back up to her feet. She might have been injured, but the entei was going to have to try harder than that to kill her.

The entei was glaring at her, very disappointed that she still had some fight left in her.

For her plan to work, Lucy would need to orient the entei so that he was in between Lucy and the cliff. Then she would need to get him closer to the cliff. This was, of course, easier said than done.

The entei opened his mouth and let out another Flamethrower. Lucy dodged to the side and charged at the entei with what little energy she had left, letting the flamethrower fly past her and into the already flaming trees around them.

Lucy, knowing that she needed to get closer, sprinted towards the beast and readied another swipe at him.

The entei could see this attack coming, and moved slightly to dodge out of Lucy's way. The sneasel, however, predicted this attack. With her uninjured left arm, Lucy lunged her claws over to where the entei had dodged and drove them as deep as she could into one of his front legs.

Lucy waited until she could feel the heat from the entei's skin before she pulled out of his leg. The entei let out a howl as Lucy aimed for one of his rear legs to make this hurt double.

The entei knew she was going to do this. Despite his pain, the entei reacted and moved his hind leg out of the way, causing Lucy to miss. She had predicted his first dodge, but was too focused to foresee this one.

As soon as the entei moved his leg back, he moved it forward again, but this time with much more force than before. His paw slammed right into Lucy's head, which caused her to lose focus and become dizzy. She stumbled away from the entei and tried to get her bearings back. That blow to her skull had made her lose most sense of reality. She couldn't think straight and her vision was blurred.

In front of her, Lucy could just barely make out the entei. He was contorted in Lucy's vision, so she couldn't see what he was going to try and do next. The entei's mane started to shimmer and glow with an orange light. Even in her dazed state, Lucy could make the conclusion that if his mouth was starting to glow, then it could only mean one thing.

The entei released his Flamethrower right as Lucy had come back to her senses. With the entei not 3 meters away from her, Lucy had very little time to react to the incoming attack. Instinctively, her feet moved for her and she began to get out of the way. She was able to get most of her body out of the way in time.

But most is not all, and even she was not fast enough.

The Flamethrower landed directly on Lucy's uninjured arm, the only thing left in it's path, and immediately engulfed it. Lucy screamed as the burning pain filled her whole arm. She tried to pull her arm out of the flames, but by the time she could, the attack was already over and had flown past her, back into the trees.

Finally, Lucy's legs gave up on her and she fell down onto the ground. She let out another gasp when her body hit the floor.

Slowly, Lucy opened her closed eyes. In front of her was the entei, towering like he was want to do. Her eyes moved over to her newly burned arm. It was hard to tell since Lucy's fur was a dark color anyway, but it looked like her fur was almost completely black and chared. Now, with both of her arms crippled, this battle was completely lost.

Lucy turned her gaze back to the entei. He was now preparing a flamethrower to finish Lucy off, this time for real.

But, it wasn't the entei that Lucy was focused on. It was what he was standing in front of that caught her attention.

Or more so what he wasn't.

Just about a meter away from the entei, the ground cut off and dropped down, leaving nothing but air behind him.

_He's so near to the edge,_ Lucy thought. _If I can just push him a little bit more… I have to keep going. I can't give up now!_

Lucy tried to gather all of the strength that she had left to move. Maybe a last bit of adrenalin that hadn't yet kicked in. Perhaps some last wind, anything, really, that could help her. She gathered up all of her energy to roll to the side (much to the dismay of her battered body) and avoided the flamethrower a second before it hit her. She used some of her last amounts of energy after that to pull herself up and stand up correctly.

The entei was practically furious at this point. He didn't show it, but Lucy could tell. He had never expected for Lucy to be able to last this long. Then again, she didn't either.

However, Lucy knew that her time was coming to an end. She was a dead sneasel walking. Any more attacks, and it was game over for her. She only had one shot at this, so she had to make it count.

Lucy called upon her body to draw out any remaining strength that she had and ran straight towards the entei for her final attack. One that would make or break her.

The fire beast wasn't about to lose to some sneasel that was clinging on to dear life like some tumbleweed in the wind. He opened his jaws and let out another Flamethrower. Lucy knew he was going to try that and swerved left to stay out of its way.

By the time that the entei had figured out that his attack had missed and stopped it, Lucy was already on him.

The dark type ran up and dug her claws deep into the skin of his front right leg, the one she had already scratched up quite a bit. Her arm immediately yelled at her, which caused her to flinch. She did the best to ignore it and continue. The entei didn't react as violently as last time and only let out a grunt in reaction to the pain.

Right after this, the entei reared back his head and brought it down hard to hit Lucy. She, however, was used to this trick and dodged to the right of it. She took her hand up and gave the entei a good punch in the head, hoping to disorientate him. The entei was not easily stunned and responded by opening his mouth and aimed to bite down on Lucy head. Before he could execute his attack, Lucy punched him right in the lower jaw. The entei backed up a little and recoiled from the attack.

Seizing this opportunity, the sneasel ran up and kicked her left leg right into the entei leg wound that she had just opened. This responsed a roar from the entei, and caused him to back up even more.

The entei was so close. All he needed now was a little bit of a push. Lucy's whole body felt as if she was swimming in a bucket of acid, but she knew she couldn't stop.

This was it. It was now or never.

Lucy gave the entei no time to recover. She ran back over to the entei and gave him another punch to the head, and then another one to his side, and then a kick to his leg again. She took her head and jammed it into the entei as a head-butt, and then gave him another punch to the head.

Both of Lucy's arms, one melted and the other one mangled, were screaming at her to stop, the pain surpassing itself with each punch, slowly increasing. Lucy did her best to ignore it and focused on her attack. She continued with another punch, and then another, and then a kick, and another. She wasn't going to let the entei have an inch. If he got any opportunity to get Lucy, it was all over.

Punch, punch, kick, punch, kick, head-butt. Lucy kept up her attack and continued to beat up the entei.

Finally the entei could take no more as his footing started to slip. Slowly but surely, the entei slid backwards from Lucy's onslaught of attacks. Truly, the entei was now feeling the torment that Lucy had felt for the entire past year. This feeling of not being able to do anything and not being able to fight back.

Lucy couldn't even feel her arms anymore. She was sure that they were still crying out in pain, but the nerves in her arms either just decided to stop sending the messages to her brain, or had died entirely.

It didn't matter though. This was it. The entei was now right on the edge of the cliff. All it would take would be one more attack to send him off.

Lucy said a quick prayer to herself, hoping that she still had enough energy to do this before picking up all the scraps in her body and formed them into one final attack. Stepping back, Lucy brought her arm behind her.

And in one swift motion, it was all over.

The attack hit, and the entei's footing on the ground was lost. His hind legs tumbled over the edge, and so did the rest of his body. He tried vainly to use his front paws to grab back onto the cliff, but the change in weight was too great, and his strength, his most valued and unbeatable aspect, had finally failed him.

In one last ditch attempt, the entei let out a Fire Blast and sent it up the cliff, to maybe, just maybe, hit the sneasel that he beaten him.

Lucy, however, didn't even go near the edge. The Fire Blast traveled up into the air, missing her entirely before exploding into many tiny little embers that disappeared one by one as they slowly traveled to the ground.

Lucy was been in the same position when she had hit the entei, daring not to move until it was all over. She waited a few seconds to make sure that the entei was really gone before bringing her arm back to her side and standing straight up.

Lucy wasn't one to say anything dramatic at climactic moments, so she stayed silent. But, she did breath in a deep breath and let it out, just for finality sake.

Lucy turned her head back to the edge of the clearing, where Meowth was. He was still laying on the ground, completely unaware for the battle that took place.

"Meowth," Lucy whispered to herself. An uncontrollable smile overtook her face.

"Meowth…" she repeated. " I… I won,"

After she said this, Lucy fell over onto to the ground, her body hitting the dirt with a soft thud.

* * *

**Sorry about the large chapter, but I couldn't find a place to cut it anywhere. Thanks for reading. **


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